Superwomen of Eva 2: The Magic Touch
by Mike313
Summary: Maya Ibuki was born to and of magic, but she never liked it. She was only too happy to leave it behind and become a computer technician. But unforeseen circumstances will force her to pick up her wand once more.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Prologue:** Talents and Tasks

_2009_

The letter should have filled Maya with a combination of relief, joy, and triumph. It was, after all, proof that all her hard work in school had not been for nothing, and that she really was as talented as she hoped.

However, instead of getting to enjoy all those pleasant emotions, Maya was instead experiencing gut-churning trepidation. The letter wasn't just the proof of her success: it also represented the terrible decision she now had to make.

"You know that Dad will royally freak if you do anything besides throw that out right now and never mention it," her sister Natsume warned in a small voice.

"I know," Maya replied glumly. She let out a sigh and plopped down on her bed. "I want this so much. Why does reaching out and taking it have to be so hard?"

"So you do intend to accept this?" Natsume asked, gesturing toward the letter. "Even though…"

"Please don't tell me that you'd have issues with me pursuing this, too," Maya said, a trace of desperation becoming clear in her voice.

"Of course not," Natsume said. "But you know what could happen if you don't just throw that letter away. And Maya…I really don't want to get drawn into any fight you have with Dad about this." She added, looking down at her feet ashamedly.

Maya sighed; she hadn't expected backup from Natsume, not in this, but it was still something of a blow to find out for sure that it would not be forthcoming.

"I understand," she said. "You can just make yourself scarce while I discuss this with Dad."

Natsume nodded. "Maya," she said slowly, "good luck. And…try to keep your cool when you talk to him."

Normally, Maya was the last person that needed to be told to keep her temper in check. However, the conversation she was going to have with their father would be the culmination of a rather pretentious issue which had been building up between them for years now. There were a lot of bottled up bad feelings on both sides.

Maya just nodded, suddenly seeming lost in thought. Natsume wondered if her sister was trying to plan exactly what she'd say to their father.

Suddenly, Natsume heard a car pulling into the driveway. She looked out her window and was unsurprised to see Takeshi Ibuki climbing out.

"He's home," she said, rather unnecessarily, since Maya had doubtlessly heard the car's engine.

Maya nodded. "You stay up here," she said. "I'm going to go break the news to Dad."

Natsume nodded silently while her sister left the room.

Maya reached the front door just in time to see her father enter, dressed in a tuxedo but with his black bowtie undone and hanging. She had seen him like this seemingly more times than she could count, and he usually had a cheerful smile on his face during those times, as he did now.

"Hello, Maya-chan," he greeted. "How was your day?"

"I got a letter from the University of Kyoto-2 today," Maya answered softly.

As she'd predicted, the smile instantly slid off her father's face. "And?" he asked.

"They've accepted my application to enroll in their computer science program," Maya said, forcing herself not to show her nervousness by mumbling or stammering. "Offered me a pretty big scholarship, too, though not a full ride. I intend to accept."

Her father sighed in a long suffering sort of way that immediately caused Maya's hackles to rise. He sounded like a grown-up who was dealing with a particularly stubborn little child, something she resented.

"Maya-chan, I don't see why you feel the need to persist in rebelling like this," he said.

Holding her ire in check only with effort, Maya replied in a deliberately calm and reasonable tone. "This isn't rebellion, Dad," she said. "It's what I want to do with my life."

Takeshi ran a hand through his dark hair. "Don't you realize the legacy you'll be snubbing by pursuing a career in _computers_?" he asked, saying the last word as though it was an obscenity. "Between your mother and I, you carry the blood of some of the greatest sorcerers and magicians in history. Nicholas Flamel, Nostradamus, one of—"

"China's Eight Immortals," Maya finished. "Yes, I know all that, Dad."

She knew it was foolish of her to interrupt him, but for once, she'd found herself unable (or perhaps unwilling) to hold her tongue. Maya had tolerated endless lectures on the glory of her heritage over the years, and she was just plain sick of hearing them.

"Do you?" Takeshi asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Yes, Dad, I know who's in my family tree," Maya said, "but I'm not going to let my family's past determine my future for me."

"But this is ridiculous!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. "You are not an ordinary person, Maya! You are a member of _Homo Magi_! You have gifts! And no daughter of mine is going to turn her back on such incredible gifts!"

"I have a gift for working computers, too!" Maya replied, her own voice starting to rise in volume. "If only you'd acknowledge that—!"

"Computers!" he scoffed. "You can command the unseen forces in this world to do almost anything you desire, and you're enamored with computers!"

"Computers have done a lot more for this world than magic!" Maya barked back. "When Second Impact came, was it the magicians and sorcerers with all their vaunted power who rebuilt the world? No! It was science! Science pulled humanity back from the brink, and computers were an integral part of that!"

"We could have restored the world, if we'd worked together!" Takeshi snapped. "But what would have humanity learned if we'd done so with the flick of a wand?"

Maya shook her head. "That sounds like an excuse for being selfish and holding back your powers to me," she said. "Assuming that you actually _could_ have rebuilt the world with magic power."

"Listen to me, Maya," Takeshi hissed. "I forbid you from throwing your talents and life away studying computers."

Pushed into a corner and determined not to yield as she was, Maya said something she knew she shouldn't have even before it was entirely out of her mouth.

"Mom would have let me go."

Takeshi's eyes flashed. "Don't you dare lecture me on what your mother would have done!" he shouted. "She died when you were six, and I can assure you, you didn't have the time to come to know her better than I did!"

Maya swallowed, daunted by this particularly intense burst of anger from her father.

"Now," he said in a much more calm voice, seemingly sensing that he'd thrown her off balance. "Why don't you throw that letter into the trash where it belongs and we can all forget about this?"

"No," Maya said softly, steeling her resolve. "I'm going to do this. I'm eighteen now; you can't stop me."

Takeshi snorted. "And how do you intend to get through university without my support?"

"I have some money saved up," Maya replied. "It should last me until I can find a job."

"Good luck," Takeshi spat. "Now get out. You're not welcome here until you decide to stop spitting on your legacy."

"Fine," Maya said with great dignity, forcing herself not to show how distressed she was by how badly this had gone. "I'll get my things and be out of here."

With that Maya stormed back upstairs and began to hastily pack, throwing clothes and personal possessions haphazardly into a few suitcases. The only thing that escaped this treatment was her laptop, which she stored in its carrying case with her usual care.

Natsume didn't say a thing as Maya went about her task, having easily heard the fight that had transpired downstairs. She offered her still angry sister only a simple good-bye, which Maya returned before heading back downstairs.

"Sayonara, Father," was all Maya said as she walked out of the house for what she presumed would be the last time.

Takeshi stared at the door his daughter had left open on her way for several minutes after she'd gone. Then, finally, he raised his wand and said, "Rood esolc!"

The door slammed itself shut.

* * *

_Two months later…_

The god of irony had to be messing with her; there was simply no other explanation for the job Maya had found herself being forced to accept.

To be sure, she hadn't expected that she'd find a _good_ job. Maya had certainly been prepared for a retched job with horrible hours and abysmal pay. What she hadn't been prepared for was the job she'd actually ended up getting.

"Hey! Magic show starts in five! Move your ass!" shouted Maiko Yurigechi, the owner of the Jade Maiden, the so-called fine establishment where Maya worked.

"I'll make it on stage in time, don't worry," Maya called back.

She quickly got to the task of changing into her rather absurd costume, doing her best not to get distracted by the other women who were also changing nearby. The getup consisted of a black top hat and the upper half of a formal tuxedo, which was normal enough attire for a stage magician.

However, beneath this, Maya wore a black garment that was essentially a one piece swimsuit. The reason for this was simple: the costume didn't include pants or a skirt. Instead, the rather mousey brunette donned a pair of fishnet stockings and put on a pair of black high heeled shoes.

_I guess I shouldn't be shocked that they have me wearing something like this, considering what this place is,_ Maya thought, though this somehow failed to improve her attitude on the subject.

For all it might like to pretend to be otherwise, the Jade Maiden was a strip club, albeit a high end strip club. Fortunately, Maya herself wasn't required to disrobe on stage. She just had to do the magic show, something that was still a blow to her pride, but in an entirely different (and far less intense) way than having to get undressed in front of a bunch of men she didn't even know.

_Though they probably wouldn't want me to get naked, anyway,_ she thought glumly, looking at her skinny, almost boyish figure and less than impressive bust in the changing room's large mirror.

Then she looked down, and her lips curved upwards in a small smile. She hadn't, even in her less than generous estimation, struck out entirely in the looks department. Though Maya never would have told anybody as much, she happened to think she had legs as attractive as those of any other woman she'd ever met.

_Which is probably why they have me in these stupid fishnets,_ she thought.

"Miss Magic! You're on in two!" Yurigechi barked.

"All right, all right," Maya called back, "I'm almost ready."

With a few dabs of spirit gum, Maya affixed a black domino mask to her face. She had asked for a mask to be added to her costume so that, in the event that someone she knew came to the Jade Maiden, they wouldn't recognize her. Yurigechi had been only too pleased to grant Maya's request, saying the mask would make her come off as "mysterious and sexy."

With a deep breath, Maya grabbed her magic wand and headed backstage.

_Remember, you need this job to pay for your education,_ she told herself, squelching her desire to quit and leave. It was an impulse she had to convince herself not to carry out before every performance. _You're never going to get a job that pays this well until after you graduate. This is only temporary. Leaving would be insane._

She heard the announcer on the other side of the curtain speaking. "And now, gentlemen, the Jade Maiden is pleased to present the Mistress of Magic, the Princess of Prestidigitation…the Amazing Aya!"

_Most unoriginal stage name ever,_ Maya thought with a smirk. _I am not a creative individual._

Plastering a smile on her face, Maya walked out into the puff of smoke that had been created for her entrance. A few of the Jade Maiden's patrons took their eyes off the pole dancers on the tables to look at her and offered a smattering of applause and whistles.

"Hello, gentlemen!" Maya greeted the crowd. "Ready to see some magic?"

* * *

_2015_

"Ohayo, sempai," Maya greeted cheerfully as she walked into NERV.

"Morning, Maya," Ritsuko replied, briefly looking up from her clipboard to give her assistant a small grin. "I hope you're ready for a busy day, because we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Maya nodded. "Of course," she said. "What's on today's agenda?"

"For you? Diagnostics," Ritsuko sighed. "We need to make certain that the MAGI are operating at full capacity after that blackout the other day. We also need to work on replacing Unit Two's armor; a lot of it was badly damaged by the last Angel's acid. I'm supervising the repairs. You get to run the checkup on the MAGI."

"I thought we kept power flowing to the MAGI even through the blackout," Maya said, confused.

"We did, more or less, but the flow of electricity got erratic for a while when we first lost power, and we can't exactly use a surge protector with the MAGI like you would a PC," Ritsuko said.

"I see," Maya nodded.

"The MAGI are probably fine, but we can't just leave these things to chance," Ritsuko said. "Start with Balthasar. It got the most interrupted power flow, so if any of the MAGI are messed up, it's probably that one."

Maya nodded. "Of course, sempai."

The two women parted ways, Ritsuko heading for the EVA cages while Maya ventured downward toward the bottom level of the command center.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Ibuki," one of the more junior technicians greeted her politely.

"Ohayo, Sakura," Maya replied. "I need you and the others to start running a standard diagnostic of the MAGI, starting with Balthasar."

Sakura's smile wavered. Standard diagnostics were extremely long and extremely tedious procedures. However, she was a professional, like everyone in Technical Division One, so she just nodded and said, "Yes, ma'am."

"Good," Maya replied. "I'll be down in Balthasar's sub-node running a few special diagnostics. If you need me, send someone down to get me. There's no way my cell phone will work in there."

"Yes, ma'am."

Grabbing her laptop, Maya then headed down several levels to the access hatch that would let her into the chamber below Balthasar. Working down here would be a good deal more interesting than toiling on the command center.

It was good to be the assistant to the head of Tech Division One.

Opening the hatch with a grunt of effort, Maya slid her laptop inside and then crawled through the small hatch herself. She shivered as she closed the hatch after herself; the small chamber was kept at unpleasantly cold temperatures for the good of the delicate electronic equipment contained within. The place wasn't really designed to accommodate humans.

A lesser woman in Maya's position would have used magic to keep herself warm, but the brunette didn't even consider it. She hadn't uttered a single spell (real or otherwise) since she'd finally escaped that awful job at the Jade Maiden, and she had no desire to change that.

The technician booted up her laptop, connected it to Balthasar with a cable, and then got to work checking some of the things that could be overlooked by the standard diagnostic.

A small smile appeared on her face as she worked, and Maya soon forgot about how cold it was. She loved her job, and she was particularly pleased that she got to work with the first MAGI system created. There were certain bits and pieces left over from its creation in the programming that had been removed when other MAGI systems had been created. Most of this superfluous code was just there, having been disabled with a few keystrokes by Dr. Naoko Akagi. Still, Maya found it a fascinating look into the process of creating the most powerful supercomputer known to man.

Suddenly, Maya's pleasant task was interrupted when what looked like an instant message window popped up on her screen.

**M-2:** you must stop him/it is the only way to save her

Maya frowned down at her screen, bewildered. The message by itself was strange enough, but the whole occurrence was made doubly odd by the fact that she didn't have any IM software installed on her laptop.

After a moment's hesitation, she reached down and typed "Who is this?" and then hit the enter key.

**M-2:** the creator as mother

Maya's eyes widened. "Balthasar?" she whispered, knowing which supercomputer was supposed to be which part of Dr. Naoko Akagi.

Balthasar was the second of three supercomputers that collectively made up the first MAGI, so the screen name fit. However, even together, the MAGI shouldn't be acting like this. They shouldn't randomly decide to engage someone in a chat session.

Unless the erratic power flow of the other day actually _did_ do something to the MAGI.

After a moment's consideration, Maya began typing again. "I don't understand. Who needs saving?"

**M-2:** ritsuko akagi

Maya sucked in a breath as what had been merely confusing suddenly became scary. Was someone out to get her mentor and friend?

"Who do you want me to stop?" Maya typed quickly.

**M-2:** gendo ikari

Maya frowned. "What's the Commander doing that needs to be stopped?" she typed.

Admittedly, Maya didn't think the man was going to win any Mr. Congeniality contests at any time in the foreseeable future, but she didn't think he had any terrible plans that including hurting her sempai. Indeed, harming Ritsuko could only be counterproductive for him, considering what an asset she was to NERV.

**M-2:** beginning data transmission

Abruptly, another box labeled "Downloading Files" appeared with a progress bar. There wasn't even a button to cancel the process, like there normally was with this kind of window.

Maya almost reached out and unplugged the cable that connected her laptop to the sub-node. She had no guarantees that "M-2" wasn't some extremely skilled hacker, possibly another NERV technician who had noticed her affection for Dr. Akagi. The thing being transmitted onto her machine could be a very bad virus.

Before she could make up her mind on what to do, the words "CONNECTION TERMINATED" abruptly appeared in large red letters on her screen. The download was only 43 percent complete.

Her pulse quickening, Maya accessed what data she had gotten. It was one enormous folder, labeled "Instrumentality." Unsurprisingly, she found that she only part of it was intact, but that still included quite a few files.

Knowing that she probably shouldn't, but too curious to resist, she began to examine the files.

Maya began to feel cold again as she went through the folder, though this time her discomfort had nothing to do with the temperature of the air around her. She could have been inside a sauna and she still would have felt like she had ice water coursing through her veins.

"This is monstrous," she whispered to herself as she viewed the plans that Commander Ikari and some organization she'd never heard of before called SEELE had for the world.

_I feel sick,_ she thought.

Suddenly, the hatch to the sub-node opened up, flooding the chamber with light. Feeling terror shoot through her, Maya quickly minimized all the windows she had open on her laptop.

"Lieutenant Ibuki?" Sakura said, sticking her head inside the hatch. "Uh, we need your assistance back on the command center."

Half convinced the woman had to be able to hear her hammering heart, Maya answered as calmly as she could. "What's the problem?"

"It's Casper, ma'am," Sakura replied. "It started trying to invade Balthasar's systems for no reason and managed to override…something. We're not sure what. We don't know what to make of it."

_Casper cut the connection? But why?_ Maya thought before shaking her head and forcefully returning herself to the present.

"Something seems off about Balthasar, too," she said. "It looks like the blackout did something to the MAGI, just like Dr. Akagi was afraid of. We're going to have to do a full system restore on the MAGI. Turn back the clock to before the power outage."

Sakura grimaced. Performing a system restore on the MAGI was a much more labor intensive process than it was on smaller, less powerful computers. "Is that really necessary, ma'am?"

"I'm afraid so," Maya said with a sigh. "It's the only way to make sure that the MAGI is returned to full operating capacity."

_Plus, it'll erase the records of me getting a hold of some of the Instrumentality files!_ She added silently.

"Yes, ma'am," Sakura replied.

Maya nodded. "Head back to the command center and start," she said. "I'll be up in a few minutes. I just need to finish something here."

Sakura nodded and departed. Maya counted to fifty in her head before she felt safe in the assumption that the woman wasn't coming back, then she restored the windows she'd minimized a minute ago. She looked at the horrible things silently for nearly two minutes.

"What am I going to do about this?" she groaned.

* * *

Author's Notes: Odds are, you either read DC comics and know exactly who our favorite bridge tech is, or you don't and you haven't the faintest clue who she is, as Maya's a rather obscure super heroine here. Because of this, I've decided to not bother being coy and just spell it out for you, dear readers. If you'd like to be surprised later, stop reading this note now.

Maya has the powers of Zatanna, a sorceress who also knows stage magic tricks. Considered by some to be DC's "greatest minor hero" Zatanna has never had her own book, but she makes fairly frequent appearances in the big name titles.

I realize it might seem like a rather odd choice, but I like the irony of one of NERV's top science people having magic powers. Plus, Maya having this particular power set opens some rather interesting possibilities…

That and the dichotomy of Maya being raised with magic and then pursuing a career in computers allows me to have her estranged from her father (bad relationships with parents seems to be a prerequisite of an Eva character) and to have certain issues to deal with, while not even approaching the "EVA pilot level" of messed up.

And maybe I liked the idea of Maya in fishnet stockings. Is that so wrong?!?

Ahem, moving right along, readers of both SOE series will note the references to "The Fourth Degree." Readers may also note that post-Eleventh Angel would have been a more sensible time for the MAGI to behave strangely, but I wanted to give Maya more time to work her magic (horrible pun, I know).

Anyway, let me wrap up this overly long author's note now, and say thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. And thanks to my beta reader, Marco A. Salazarm.

* * *

Omake

Weird References

_Suddenly, Maya's pleasant task was interrupted when what looked like an instant message window popped up on her screen._

_**M-2:**__ you must stop him/it is the only way to save her_

_After a moment's hesitation, she reached down and typed "Who is this?" and then hit the enter key._

_**M-2:**__ the creator as mother_

_Maya's eyes widened. "Balthasar?" she whispered._

_After a moment's consideration, Maya began typing again. "I don't understand. What do you want me to do?"_

**M-2:** Follow the white rabbit, Maya.

The techie frowned. "Follow the white rabbit?" she whispered, then typed, "Is that a dig at me having been a stage magician, or some kind of weird tribute to _The Matrix_?"

**M-2:** A little from column A, a little from column B…

Maya scowled, then quickly typed. "Hyuga, is this you?"

**M-2:** …no.

Her scowl deepened as her fingers blurred over the keyboard. "I don't know how you managed to find out I used to work as a magician, but if you tell ANYONE about it, I will shove my magic wand so far up your—"

CONNECTION TERMINATED

"Hmph," Maya grumbled, "serves him right."


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter One: **Reluctant Magic

After she returned to the command center from the MAGI sub-node, Maya found that she couldn't concentrate on her work at all. For her, this was unusual enough to be freakish, but it wasn't exactly like she was mystified at the reason.

Learning that powerful hidden cabals currently had plans for Armageddon in the works would shatter anyone's focus.

_What am I going to do?_ She thought as the more junior technicians went about the task of preparing for the system restore she'd ordered._ What am I going to do?_

Her day wasn't supposed to go like this. It was supposed to have just been a normal day, busy but fulfilling, with her doing what she loved to do. Finding out about a scheme to destroy the world and being charged with preventing it from happening had _not_ been on her agenda.

"Maya?"

The petite brunette nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt someone's hand upon her shoulder. Maya immediately leapt to the conclusion that it was the Commander, who'd somehow discovered that she'd learned too much. That the voice which had spoken her name obviously didn't belong to Gendo Ikari was something that didn't quite register with her.

Maya turned and saw Ritsuko standing behind her.

_Sempai,_ she thought. Her mentor's mother had, through the wonders of cutting-edge technology, reached up from the grave to try and protect her, and Ritsuko didn't have the faintest clue about it.

She almost told Dr. Akagi that she needed to speak with her in private, so she could tell her sempai that she and everyone else in the world was in grave danger. The words were on the tip of her tongue before a truly terrible thought stopped her.

If the Commander intended to use NERV's technology to bring about his terrible plan, wouldn't he need the assistance of NERV's top scientist?

_No!_ Maya thought at once, not wanting to believe for a moment that her mentor and friend would ever be a party to such a thing.

Still, the question of how the Commander could ever hope to complete his plans without Dr. Akagi's help was something she had no answer for, unfortunately, and much as she didn't want to think Ritsuko could be involved, Maya didn't think she could afford to take a chance.

"Maya!"

Startled, the brunette jerked back to reality and blushed with embarrassment. "Gomen nasai, sempai. I don't know where my mind is today."

Ritsuko nodded. "You look a little pale," she said. "Are you feeling all right?"

"Just fine," Maya said, nodding earnestly. "I'm just a little… out of it today."

Ritsuko smiled. "I think we've all had days like that, Maya," she said. "I asked you how things were going here."

"Oh, well, I noticed that both Balthasar and Casper were acting strangely, so I ordered a full system restore," Maya answered.

The blonde's eyebrows went up. "I didn't expect that the power outage would have such a great effect on the MAGI."

"They were both behaving very strangely, sempai," Maya said, fervently hoping that Ritsuko didn't go investigating the MAGI's ills herself.

Until the system restore was complete, there would be records of Balthasar having sent her those forbidden files. Regardless of whether or not Ritsuko knew anything about the Commander and SEELE's plans, Maya didn't want Ritsuko discovering what she herself had.

_"_I trust your judgment, Maya," Ritsuko said. "Just be sure to give me a heads up before you actually do it. There's some files I'll need to backup."

"Of course, sempai," Maya said, feeling both relief and guilt sweep over her.

_She trusts me,_ Maya thought._ But I'm hiding things from her. _And_ I don't trust her, not enough to tell her about what I found, anyway._

"Well, I have to get back to what I was doing," Ritsuko said. "No rest for the wicked, eh, Maya?"

"I… I guess not," Maya replied, forcing herself to sound as cheerful as possible while fervently wishing her sempai had made a different choice of words.

* * *

The rest of the workday was a blur to Maya, as she functioned largely on auto-pilot while turning over the hideous things she'd learned in her mind. She was so out of it that she very nearly ordered the system restore be initiated before warning Dr. Akagi as she'd requested, and only the reminder of one of the junior technicians saved her from making this embarrassing blunder.

Finally, the day came to an end, and Maya was able to punch out and head for home.

"Quite a day, huh?" Makoto said to her as they headed for the train station.

"You can say that again," Maya answered tiredly.

Makoto adjusted his glasses, taking notice of the laptop the brunette had under her arm as she did so. "Taking your work home with you?"

_You have no idea,_ Maya thought.

"Yeah," she answered. "All those problems with the MAGI today really put me behind."

"I can imagine," Makoto said. "Well, try not to work too hard."

"Somehow," Maya said as they boarded their train, "I don't think that'll be an option."

Makoto quirked an eyebrow. "Are you okay, Maya?" he asked. "You seem very down today."

"Oh, I'm fine," Maya said, forcing a smile. "Just… beat."

_Crud, I'm definitely going to have to dust off my showmanship skills if I don't want people getting suspicious,_ Maya thought to herself.

"Well, we've all been there," Makoto said. "Just remember that NERV won't fall apart at the seams if you fall a little behind in your work."

"Thanks, I'll try and keep that in mind," Maya said.

_So normal,_ she thought, amazed that it was still possible for her to have such an ordinary conversation, knowing what she now knew. The world had become a darker place that afternoon, but everybody was acting just the same as they had that morning. Maya realized there was no reason for them to behave differently, since they didn't know what she now did. Still, it was oddly disconcerting.

The train took Maya to her own neighborhood in about fifteen minutes, and she disembarked, now heading for her home on foot. She reached her building in minutes and was soon entering her apartment.

"I'm home," she said as she crossed the threshold.

As usual, no one was present to answer her. One of the few negatives to her job at NERV was that the long and often erratic hours prevented her from forming much of anything in the way of a social life, let alone finding a boyfriend. She didn't even have the time to care for a pet.

_It would be nice to have another rabbit, _Maya thought, remembering Carrots, her childhood pet, which had doubled as a prop in her father's magic act._ Though really, having _anything_ here waiting for me to come home would be nice._

She quickly put this thought out of her mind, wondering how she could be concerned about something so minor when she had discovered mere hours ago that the entire world was in jeopardy.

"Ugh, is that ever going to sink in?" Maya wondered aloud, rubbing her eyes.

She felt exhausted, simply from carrying the weight of such overwhelming knowledge for the bulk of her day. The brunette didn't even want to think about what it would do to her after a few days or weeks.

_Well, can't be helped,_ she thought._ I can't unlearn that information._

With a small sigh, Maya placed her laptop down on her kitchen table and plugged it in, since she had a sinking feeling that she'd need it for longer than the machine's battery could hold out.

The first thing she did once she got her computer booted up was to start copying the Instrumentality files on her hard drive to a portable zip drive. There was far less chance of NERV discovering she had them that way, and Maya didn't want to take any more risks than were absolutely necessary.

While her laptop was busy with this task, Maya went to her bedroom to exchange her uniform for a black T-shirt with the NERV logo on it in red, and a pair of very short jean shorts that she wouldn't be caught dead wearing in public. After this was done, Maya fixed herself a cup of tea. It calmed her nerves a little.

Her laptop let out a chime, signaling that it had finished the task she'd given it and was now idle. Pulling up a chair, Maya first deleted the copy of the files that remained on her hard drive, and then began to look through them more carefully.

There was a lot of information there, all of it horrifying, but still less than Maya had expected. The uncorrupted files she possessed were heavy on "what" and low on "how." They explained that SEELE and Commander Ikari both intended to invoke Third Impact, SEELE for the purpose of achieving godhood and Commander Ikari for becoming reunited with his deceased wife, but there was no explanation of how they planned to make this work.

Oh, there was a bit of extra information here and there—all the Angels, or the "children of Adam" as they were referred to most of the time, had to be dead before either SEELE or Ikari could commence Third Impact, for instance, something that brought Maya no small measure of relief—but there wasn't nearly enough for Maya to really get a grip on what was going on.

"I need more information," she sighed after two hours of attempting to repair the corrupted files had resulted in nothing but frustration.

She couldn't hope to stop the Commander and SEELE if she had only the barest idea of what their plans were after all.

Maya then realized that she was thinking about trying to do, namely defeat Commander Ikari, the most unflappable, steely, and downright intimidating man she'd ever met, who held sway over the entire city. Then she'd have to somehow thwart the people _he_ answered to. The task Balthasar had charged her with suddenly seemed incredibly overwhelming all over again, and the mousey technician wasn't sure whether to burst into fits of laughter or tears.

As it turned out, she did neither. Instead, her stomach made itself heard, letting out a loud growl. Blinking, Maya looked at her clock and realized how late it was.

Part of her was amazed that something as petty as hunger could even register with her, considering what she had learned. She supposed some parts of a human were simply unable to appreciate such things.

"I guess it couldn't hurt to stop for dinner," she said to herself.

Maya knew how to cook competently enough, but there were plenty of nights when she just didn't feel up to the task. This definitely being one of them, the brunette searched her freezer until she found a frozen meal, which she quickly popped into her microwave.

"A fine mess you've gotten yourself into now, Ibuki," she mused while she waited for her food to heat up.

After living alone for a while, she had developed the habit of talking to herself occasionally. She tried not to think of the implications of this habit too much, or too hard.

"You couldn't just be a computer technician anywhere, oh no! You had to _make a difference_ just to show Dad, so you worked your way into NERV so you could have some small part in saving the world," she grumbled. "Now look what's happened. The fate of the planet's resting entirely on your skinny shoulders."

Her microwave finished heating her dinner, and she sat down and started to eat, not allowing herself to think, just taste. Her brain needed a break, and she didn't want to come to the conclusion she knew she would inevitably reach.

Yet she could only shut her eyes to what was right in front of her face for so long before she acknowledged that it was there. As she was washing the few dishes she'd dirtied, she finally gave in.

She needed more information, and it would be reckless at best for Maya the computer technician to try and obtain it. Maya the magician, on the other hand, had a lot more options open to her.

She'd sworn to never again use magic, but the fate of the world was at stake.

"I really hope nobody ever finds out about this," Maya sighed as she put away her dishes.

Walking with both resignation and determination in her stride, Maya left her kitchen and went to a moderately-sized closet she had in her apartment. Unlike the rest of her living space, which she made a point of keeping tidy regardless of what her work schedule looked like, Maya almost completely neglected this closet.

So she wasn't surprised to find dust and cobwebs aplenty when she opened the door, the hinges releasing a loud squeak as she did so. "Lovely," she coughed slightly as a cloud of dust wafted out.

The closet was where she kept the few items that connected her, in one way or another, to magic. In it resided every object of power and every prop necessary for a stage magic trick that Maya possessed, along with assorted other bric-a-brac that she associated with the part of herself which she'd repudiated.

Sitting in the center of a shelf within that was at her eye level, as though positioned specifically for her to see them at once, were two little stone , the Shinto god of medicine and magic, lay there dressed in obsidian, while the white hare of Inaoa, a magical creature that had once helped the diety, sat next to him, made entirely of alabaster.

Her sister Natsume had slipped those into her bags, the day she left home. The little statues had been accompanied by a hastily written letter, in which Natsume had apologized for not helping Maya argue with their father, as well as asked Maya not to let her refusal to let her heritage rule her turn into a willingness to forget about it.

The brunette smiled slightly as she picked up the figurines. She remembered finding them, and reading her sister's letter. All her anger had instantly melted away and she'd cried very hard, full of sudden homesickness and fear that she had just made a terrible mistake.

If not for the little statues, the contents of the closet would likely be languishing in a garbage dump somewhere, rather than sitting on some neglected shelves, covered in dust.

Putting the god and the rabbit back down, Maya began to root about inside the closet, searching for something. She didn't expect that she would be looking for very long, since there really wasn't much there. The vast bulk of the enchanted artifacts and talismans owned by the Ibuki family remained in her father's possession, and only things that Maya had accidentally taken when she'd stormed out, as well the few items she'd picked up despite herself since then, occupied the closet.

"Ah," she said with satisfaction as she finally discovered what she was looking for.

It was a deck of tarot cards, similar to the kind one could buy in just about any magic or hobby shop, but powerful in the hands of a _Homo Magi _like Maya_._

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said as she took the cards back to her kitchen table and removed them from the box.

Maya didn't read tarot cards like most fortune tellers did. For one thing, she had no use for the minor arcana; she could only ever get information out of the major arcana, the ones with pictures on them. She sorted the useless cards out, and then shuffled those that remained.

Once this was done, Maya took a deep, calming breath, momentarily letting go of her dislike for magic and releasing all but one thought from her mind.

_I need to know about the Commander's plan._

Her right hand hovered over the deck as she took slow, even breaths. For several minutes, she just sat there, unmoving, and allowing herself to go into a sort of a trance.

Abruptly, as though compelled by great and unseen forces, Maya grabbed a card from the top of the deck, flipped it over, and placed it on the table in front of her.

She didn't see what card it actually was, only what it represented and the knowledge that came with it. The first card represented, appropriately enough, Commander Ikari, the one who guided the whole evil scheme with a firm and ruthless hand. SEELE was powerful, terrifyingly so, and clever in their own way, but Gendo Ikari was the one who held all the winds and dragons. He was the one who had personal access to the truly important people and objects.

With that realization, her hand flipped three more cards, each one representing an EVA pilot. The ones for Shinji and Rei she placed right beneath the Commander's card. Asuka's was put off to the side.

The First and the Third Children were the important ones. They were the keys to the Commander's scenario. Asuka… she was just extra somehow.

Were Maya not in a trance, she might have wondered at how the Second Child would react to learning such a thing. Probably not very well.

Three more cards came up, which she all placed next to Shinji. If the Commander and SEELE had their way, the Third Child would, for but a moment, hold power over _everything_ in his hands, and in his pain, he would choose to unmake it all.

Maya could have stopped there. She knew what the critical elements of the scenario were. She knew who and what she had to meddle with in order to ensure that both the Commander and SEELE were denied what they wanted.

And yet she couldn't stop, because there was one more thing she needed to know. Her hand turned over two more cards in rapid succession, and she discovered that Ritsuko Akagi, her beloved sempai, _was_ knowingly assisting Ikari in his monstrous ambitions, just like her mother had before her.

Maya sucked in a sharp gasp of air, and her trance was broken. She shook her head violently, suddenly feeling sick and nauseous.

"This day just keeps getting better and better," she said, panting.

She then looked down at her table, and saw which card had represented what. Some were, if not comforting, at least what she would have expected or even relatively mundane. Asuka and Rei, for instance, were represented by the Sun and the Moon, respectively. The three cards that showed what SEELE and Commander Ikari wanted Shinji to do at the climax of their terrible scheme were the World, Judgment, and Death. Naoko Akagi was the Empress, a card which often symbolized something to do with motherhood. None of these cards disturbed her.

Ritsuko's card profoundly confused the petite brunette. The bottle blond scientist was represented by the Fool, which Maya couldn't begin to understand. She had always felt that her sempai was the smartest person she'd ever met.

Her beloved mentor's card disturbed her somewhat, but the two remaining cards that she'd drawn chilled her to the bone. Shinji Ikari was represented by the Hanged Man, an ominous portent at best. Of course, trouble for him in the future meant trouble for _everyone_, if SEELE and the Commander's plans ever reached their final phase.

That alone was enough to make her taste bile at the back of her throat, but even that terrible bit of knowledge couldn't compare to the card that she had first drawn, the card for the one who was at the center of all of it.

The card representing Gendo Ikari was the Devil.

* * *

The next day found Maya sitting at her terminal in the NERV command center, typing away with far less enthusiasm than usual. The horrifying things she had discovered, both last night and before then, refused to leave her mind and allow her any peace for even a moment.

"Lieutenant Ibuki."

Maya jumped so violently that her entirely body actually left her chair for a moment. Breathing hard, she turned to see who had addressed her. Her frayed nerves were not exactly soothed when she found herself looking up at the face of Captain Chiron, the head of Section Two.

"Yes, sir?" she asked.

"Commander Ikari wishes to see you," Chiron replied, "immediately."

"Of course, sir," Maya said as she stood up, then turned to one of the junior technicians. "Yumi, cover my station until I get back."

"Yes, ma'am," the other tech said obediently, taking Maya's seat.

Maya got up and followed Captain Chiron out of the command center. The man walked with long, purposeful strides as he led her to the Commander's office, and he didn't say a word.

Perhaps it was just her imagination, but Maya detected a certain…grim air about the man, like an executioner leading the condemned to the gallows.

_Stop it!_ She commanded herself sternly.

"Why does the Commander want to see me?" she asked a few moments later, unable to take it any longer.

"The Commander didn't inform me. I was just sent to get you, Ibuki," Chiron replied curtly.

That answer didn't exactly fill her with confidence, but they had reached the great double doors that were the portal to the Commander's lair. Chiron opened one of the doors and gestured for Maya to enter.

For a moment, the petite woman's legs refused to move as fear swept over her. She had never been called into the Commander's office to speak with him alone before. Nor had anyone else of her relatively low rank, for that matter. The only reason he would summon her like this was if he knew.

_You're not sure he knows,_ Maya told herself. _But he _will_ know something's wrong if you run or freak out._

Armed with this bit of logic, Maya stepped inside, and just in time, too, if the strange look Chiron was giving her was anything to go by.

The interior of the Commander's office looked like it always did, which was to say that it looked creepy. The vast room was dark, despite the entirety of the far wall being a great window that should have flooded the place with sunlight at this hour. It must have been some trick of the way sunlight was reflected into the Geofront that kept the place dim in even the middle of the day, Maya mused. A strange and intricate drawing of something she wasn't familiar with covered the ceiling and was reflected upon the floor's mirror-like surface.

_Whatever it is, it's creepy,_ Maya thought.

"Lieutenant Ibuki," Gendo addressed her as she approached his desk.

"Sir," Maya replied automatically, saluting.

Her brown eyes darted over to his side, where the Vice Commander had been standing like a sentinel during every previous visit she'd ever made to the huge office. The absence of the older man disturbed her.

"It has come to my attention that you recently performed a full system restore on the MAGI," Commander Ikari said.

Maya's heart began to jackhammer within her chest, and she felt herself break out into a cold sweat.

_Showmanship, Maya!_ She thought.

Suddenly, the former stage magician remembered her time at the Jade Maiden, feeling humiliated by what she was doing but keeping a smile firmly glued to her face at all times. Keeping her outward appearance together couldn't be _that_ much harder now than it was back then.

"That's correct, sir," she replied and was impressed with how level her voice sounded.

"Why did you decide to do this?" he asked.

"The MAGI were behaving strangely," Maya answered. "It appeared as though the power outages that occurred during the Ninth Angel's attack had caused a number of errors."

"How were the MAGI behaving strangely exactly?" Gendo pressed.

Fighting the rising terror as she became more and more certain he was about to inform her she was caught at any moment now, Maya swallowed and answered, "Balthasar started running random applications, and Casper attempted to hack Balthasar."

"I see," Gendo said.

There was a pause.

"Is that all, sir?" Maya asked after the silence became practically painful. "Am I dismissed?"

"Yes, you may go," Gendo said coldly.

Maya had to consciously command herself not to show her relief, which she knew would arouse even more suspicion than her fear would have. "Thank you, sir," she said, saluting again.

With that, she turned on her heel and strode toward the doors, forcing herself not to move too fast toward sweet, sweet freedom.

Then, Captain Chiron stepped in front of the doors, blocking her path.

"Oh, yes, there is something I forgot," Gendo said, his tone almost conversational. "Casper sent you files that were never meant for your eyes."

Maya gasped and spun around to face the Commander. Her eyes widened when she actually saw him.

The man's eyes had been replaced with burning coals, and his orange glasses were visibly melting from the heat they were producing. He exhaled and twin streams of gray smoke escaped his nostrils and went swirling toward the ceiling. Maya let out a small squeak of terror.

"There was only one sane thing to do when Casper sent you that information," Gendo proclaimed.

Maya barely heard him. When he opened his mouth to speak, the brunette had fiery light blazing within his mouth. It was like his body had become the vessel for an unholy inferno.

"The sane thing to do would have been to delete the data, flee, and try to enjoy whatever time the world has left," Gendo continued. "Not to try and stop me. That's a battle you've already lost. Behold."

He gestured, and Maya noticed that smoke was billowing out of his sleeve. Slowly, reluctantly, she turned her head to look in the direction he had indicated. Maya felt the blood drain from her face once her gaze fell upon what the Commander wanted her to see.

Shinji Ikari, the Commander's own son, hung suspended from the ceiling by a noose formed from thick rope. His blank, glassy eyes stared at her accusingly, and his skin had long ago long the glow of life.

"No," she whispered, wondering how she had managed to miss the gruesome display before.

"And now, Ibuki, you shall join him," Gendo said, getting up from his desk and slowly advancing toward her.

The man left burning footprints with each step he took, and Maya could feel the intense heat he was giving off even though he still all the way across the room.

Release a cry, she turned and tried to get out, but Chiron grabbed hold of her forearms and kept her easily away from her only possible escape route.

"Get out of my way!" Maya exclaimed, struggling fiercely even though she knew there was no chance of her overpowering the large man. "He'll kill us both!"

Chiron's response was to wordlessly shove her hard enough that she went sprawling, falling painfully on her rear end. She turned her neck to see how close the Commander had come and saw that he was already more than halfway across the room.

_I'm going to die,_ Maya thought with absolute certainty.

"Help me!" she screamed. "Somebody help me! He's going to kill me!"

Suddenly, a point of silvery light appeared in the center of the great room and flew toward her, trailing wispy smoke behind it. Before Maya's very eyes, it grew and transformed, taking on the shape of a man.

Takeshi Ibuki.

A ghostly vision of her father stood before her, dressed in the tuxedo she'd seen him wear countless times, the one he always wore for his performances. He extended a hand, and Maya could see an object, a solid object, resting in his palm.

A magic wand. It was the key to her escaping the Commander's office alive.

But it was also the symbol of everything she had walked away from, everything she had escaped from. If she took it now, it would be as good as admitting to her father that he had been right all along.

She hesitated.

And that hesitation proved fatal. The Commander pounced on her, and her entire world became heat and pain. Maya threw her head back and screamed in agony as she felt her skin being charred away, her bones being reduced to ash, and her very _soul_ becoming scorched by the Commander's infernal flame. And then—

* * *

—She jerked awake with a start. Her chest heaved as she panted heavily, and her entire body was utterly drenched with sweat. She felt even more weary than she had before she'd gone to sleep.

_I'd forgotten…the price that has to be paid to read the cards,_ she thought as she gradually calmed down.

Unfortunately, she knew she wasn't quite finished paying yet. The residual effects from the tarot cards wouldn't be dispelled until dawn of the coming morning. Until then, any sleep she got was destined to be plagued by horrifically vivid nightmares.

"Guess I'm staying awake then," Maya said to herself, getting out of bed and throwing on a robe.

She trudged toward her kitchen to make herself some tea, not looking forward to the rest of the long night she had before her.

* * *

Morning came eventually, as morning always did, and Maya got up and went to work, as she always did. Her workday unfolded in a perfectly normal manner; no scary Section Two guys said they needed to speak to her in private, and the work remained every bit as intellectually-stimulating as ever.

_It's not the same,_ she thought morosely as she typed at her console.

The knowledge she had acquired yesterday had taken the sparkle off the world, and Maya was no longer taking the simple pleasures from her job that she once had.

_Which is a real shame, since my job is about the only thing in my life right now,_ she thought. _Or at least it was, until Balthasar decided I look like someone who can save the world._

"Hello, Maya."

The petite technician jumped, and then spun her chair around to face Ritsuko. "Sempai," she said. "You startled me."

"Sorry, about that, Maya," Ritsuko said. "I wanted to ask you if you're feeling better today."

"Oh, much," Maya lied through her teeth, forcing a smile.

"Good," Ritsuko said. "Anyway, I was heading down to the commissary for lunch. I was wondering if you'd like to join me."

Two days ago, Maya would have leapt at this offer, but two days ago felt like a completely different lifetime. "Thank you, sempai, but I really have a lot of work I should finish."

"All right, Maya," Ritsuko said. "Just don't let your job consume your life. All work and no play, you know."

"Right," Maya agreed.

Ritsuko walked off. Maya watched her go.

_What hold does he have on you, sempai?_ The brunette wondered. _What hold did he have over your mother?_

Maya just didn't understand how Gendo could manage to control someone like Ritsuko strongly enough to make her cooperate with his awful plans. She had always seen her mentor as a strong, confident woman who'd be completely unwilling to take any garbage from anyone.

Ritsuko's strength was the reason Maya had always felt so drawn to the blond woman, but apparently there was a side to her sempai that she'd never seen.

All her illusions had been shattered in the course of a single day.

"Hey, Maya, is something wrong?" Aoba asked. "It's not like you to brush off Dr. Akagi like that."

"Hmm? Oh no, I just have so much work to do," she said, adding a tired sigh for effect, which wasn't hard, given how little sleep she'd gotten the previous night.

"I hear you," Aoba said. "Weekly reports, regular maintenance, and the Children have a sync test that we have to oversee today. It's crazy."

"Yeah," Maya agreed. "Crazy."

The long haired technician's comment made her think of the EVA pilots, two of whom were the keys to the evil plans that were being carried out beneath the veneer of saving the world from the Angels. After briefly looking around to check that no one was looking at her, Maya turned to her console and brought up Shinji and Rei's dossiers.

To her surprise, the First Child's was practically empty, containing nothing but her name, date of birth, a picture of her, and the records of how well she'd managed to sync with EVA over the years. There was no personal history, family records, or anything else. It was like the girl just existed for the purposes of NERV.

The Third Child's dossier contained more information, but not by much. His mother had died when he was four, and his father had sent him to live with an uncle soon after that. Commander Ikari had then called him back shortly before the Third Angel had arrived. There was no real information on the years between then.

_Poor boy,_ she thought. _And the people controlling his life want him to hate the world so much that he'd destroy it. They're deliberately making his life a hell._

She thought back to her dream, to the horrible, glassy eyes Shinji's corpse had had, and she shuddered.

Of course, as bad as that had been, real life held worse for him down the line, if his father had anything to say about it. In her dream, the Commander had hanged him. In the waking world, the Commander wanted to get him to hang himself.

It shamed Maya to realize it, but she'd never given Shinji, or either of the other EVA pilots for that matter, very much thought. They were just… co-workers for the most part. People who worked for NERV like she did, but not in the same department. It was her job to help care for their machines but not for them. The Children themselves had never been her concern, and she'd never seen any reason to change that.

Her gut twisted with further guilt as she thought back to the past since Balthasar had contacted her. She had done little but feel sorry for herself since then, and while being charged with defeating foes like the Commander and SEELE wasn't exactly pleasant, it was nothing to being the focus of those same groups, to having them putting their enormous resources to the task of making him miserable enough to want to end everything. They weren't trying to make _her_ miserable enough to place a noose around her own neck.

Maya hadn't asked for this duty, but somebody needed to do it, and she, too, had resources, loathe as she was to call upon most of them.

_Guess I have no choice but to save the world, then,_ she thought, steeling her resolve.

* * *

"The tests are completed for the day," Ritsuko announced as the Children's test plugs opened. "Shinji, your score has increased by four points. Asuka, you've gone up one. Rei, you've remained steady, as usual."

Shinji looked at Asuka out of the corner of his eye, and was unsurprised to see that the redhead was looking less than happy. Whenever a sync test revealed that his link with Evangelion had strengthened more than hers had, the German was irascible for the rest of the day, at best. He was in for a rather unpleasant evening.

_I hate sync tests,_ he thought glumly.

"The three of you are dismissed for the day," Akagi said.

"Roger," the pilots replied, getting out of their test plugs and leaving the testing chamber.

Shinji headed to the locker room that was reserved for male EVA pilots. It struck him as a little ridiculous to have two locker rooms for three pilots, especially when there were other locker rooms used by the rest of the NERV personnel throughout the base. However, he'd be lying if he were to claim that he didn't appreciate the privacy.

The Third Child showered and changed back into his normal clothes, glad to be out of the plug suit. With this task completed, he picked up his bag and left the locker room, already pondering what to make for dinner.

_Maybe something Western,_ he thought. _It would probably improve Asuka's mood._

"Shinji?"

He turned to see that Maya Ibuki was standing at the end of the hallway, apparently having just turned a corner. "Can I help you, Lieutenant Ibuki?" Shinji asked.

"There's no need to call me 'Lieutenant Ibuki', Shinji," the technician said. "Everyone just calls me Maya."

"Uh, okay, Maya, then," Shinji said. "Is there something you want from me?"

"I just wanted to ask how you're doing," she replied.

"How I'm doing?" he asked, confused and wondering if perhaps there was something going on that he didn't know about.

Maya shrugged. "Well, I just figured that I should probably ask the people who we've charged with saving the world how they're holding up now and then."

"I'm fine," Shinji answered.

"How are things at home?" Maya pressed. "How are you doing in school?"

Shinji frowned, vaguely suspicious of this spontaneous show of concern. However, he simply gave a mental shrug and went along with it, not knowing what else to do. "Okay, I guess," he said. "I'm, uh, struggling in physics class, but other than that, everything's… normal."

"I see," Maya said. "You know, if you like, I could probably tutor you in physics. It hasn't been so long since I had to study it myself."

Shinji blinked. "Uh, aren't you really busy, with your job and everything?"

"Sometimes," Maya admitted, "but here's the thing: things really kick into high gear around here during and after Angel battles, and at those times, you and the other pilots are stuck here all the time, too."

That much was very true, Shinji thought. After every battle, he, Asuka, and Rei were subjected to endless tests and checkups. Not only that, but their respective Evangelions all underwent a similar number of checks, and the pilots were required for quite a few of them. Every Angel battle meant at least two straight weeks of going in to NERV after school and staying at headquarters for hours. It was enough to make an EVA pilot wonder if letting an Angel tear him apart would really be _so_ bad.

"You're really willing to tutor me in physics?" Shinji asked, almost disbelievingly.

While people randomly deciding to do nice things for him did happen, it was _exceedingly_ rare. Heck, even his best friend had had to punch him in the face before they could be pals.

"It's not like I have much else to do on my off hours," Maya said, and Shinji detected a brief trace of genuine forlornness before it vanished behind her cheerful demeanor. "Besides, it's the least I can do for you, considering what you're doing for everyone."

"Oh, I just pilot the EVA," he said bashfully.

Maya shrugged. "Well, is it a yes or a no?"

Shinji considered briefly. This offer from out of the blue struck him as really odd, but he couldn't possibly imagine Maya having some kind of malicious intent. She just came off as the type of person who didn't have a single malevolent bone in her entire body.

He could also really do without the school sending Misato another bad report card, and he wasn't exactly eager to get further instruction from Asuka (although, to give credit where it was due, he didn't think he'd _ever_ forget the basic principles of thermal expansion).

"I think I'd like that, Lieutenant Ibuki, uh, I mean, Maya," he said.

She smiled. "I'll see you this Sunday at my apartment, then?" she asked. "At, say, two o'clock?"

"Uh, sure," Shinji said.

"Good," Maya said. "I live in the Yoshimata apartment complex, in the northwest part of the city. Do you know where that is?"

Shinji nodded.

"I'm in apartment 321," Maya said.

"Okay, I'll, uh, see you on Sunday, then," Shinji said.

Maya gave him a smile and a nod, and then she walked off. Shinji smiled as she turned and corner and vanished from sight. That had been extremely nice of Maya.

* * *

Never cast part of a spell.

It was something her father had said frequently, and though Maya had never been crazy about the phrasing of it, the basic lesson was sound. Leaving a job half-finished was never a good idea, especially when that job was saving the world from a pack of frighteningly powerful madmen.

And right now, Maya felt like that job wasn't even half done; whatever ability to help Shinji she might have during their tutoring sessions, it couldn't be greater than his own father's ability to hurt him.

"Obviously, I have to do more," she said as she dragged her trunk of magic stuff out of her closet that evening and opened the lid. "And not just a little more. Much as I hate to think about it, this situation requires drastic measures."

She pulled her magic wand out of the trunk. It was black, about a foot long, and had a white tip on either end. Thousands of stage magicians throughout history had used such props, and Maya's was actually no more special than any of theirs. It served as something to help her focus; she herself had more than enough magic than to need an enchanted trinket for basic spells.

"Still can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered as she wiped away the layer of dust that had collected on the wand with a handkerchief. "And I really hope Dad doesn't find out I'm using magic again."

_Priorities, Maya, _she thought. _Saving the world is the primary objective. Keeping Dad from finding out you're using magic to do it is number two._

It was something she knew intellectually, but emotionally, she was still having difficulty making herself accept it. Maya wasn't usually a stubborn person, but this particular issue was the exception.

_Suck it up, and do it!_ She ordered herself sternly.

Even with this thought in mind, Maya didn't immediately go into motion. Instead, she silently regarded her wand for a long moment. It had been a very long time since she'd last cast a real spell, her dabbling in divination the previous night notwithstanding. But it was the sort of thing that never left a person, like the ability to ride a bike.

Or at least, she hoped so.

"Start out with something simple," she told herself.

The brunette scanned her apartment for a few seconds, before her gaze settled upon a glass of water that sat on her kitchen table. Maya pointed her wand at it.

"Ezeerf!" she commanded.

Nothing happened. The water in the glass remained completely unchanged.

To her surprise, Maya felt a surge of sadness assault her. It was completely nonsensical, but it was also utterly undeniable. Despite how soundly she had renounced her magical talents, the idea that they had atrophied so totally over the years that she couldn't cast a real spell filled her with sorrow.

_My magic powers are… gone,_ Maya thought despondently, not yet even wondering how she was supposed to stop the Commander and SEELE without her magic.

Then a faint creaking sort of noise reached her ears and she looked up. The water in her glass was frozen solid.

A large, relieved smile spread over her face. "I must have just been a little rusty," she said, then pointed her wand at the glass again. "Waht!"

The ice instantly melted back into water.

Feeling her confidence in her long ignored gift grow, Maya pointed her wand at a small footstool in her living room. "Loots otni tibbar!"

The footstool shifted and warped, its form and color changing until a snow white rabbit sat in its place, its little pink nose twitching.

"Ssalg otni evod!" Maya said, pointing at her original target.

The water glass was transformed into a white dove, which let out a soft "coo!" and then went flying around the apartment.

"Hcuoc semoceb regit!" she shouted.

Her couch morphed into a white tiger, which sniffed around for a moment before it spotted the rabbit. Then it let out a roar, and charged the bunny, which naturally beat a hasty retreat. The tiger knocked over a small table with a lamp upon it, sending the small appliance crashing to the floor where it shattered into a million pieces.

"Stop!" Maya shouted as the two animals tore through her home, the larger one destroying everything in its path. "I mean, pots!"

The rabbit and the tiger both immediately froze in their tracks. Maya sighed in relief, then looked around her apartment and blanched. The giant feline's brief rampage hadn't just upended her table and shattered her lamp, it had dug deep gouges in the wooden floor with its claws, knocked over her TV, and crashed into her entertainment center, damaging her stereo.

"Slamina emoceb ym ffuts niaga!" Maya said.

The tiger changed back into her couch, the rabbit became the footstool again, and the dove changed back into the glass of water.

Unfortunately, the dove happened to be flying around at the time, so it changed back in midair. The full glass went falling to the floor and shattered, sending water and pieces of broken glass in all directions.

"Great," Maya grumbled, suddenly a good deal less thankful that her magic still worked.

She surveyed her trashed apartment with a weary grimace, considering what she should do. On the one hand, she was loathe to use magic to fix a problem she could solve without it. On the other hand, the animals she'd conjured had made an incredible mess.

Her deliberations were cut off by someone pounding at her door.

"Ibuki!" the voice of her neighbor cried. "What in the world is going on in there?!"

"Nothing, Mrs. Takanawa!" Maya shouted back. "It was the TV!"

"The TV my foot!" the woman shouted back. "Do you have a _lion_ in there?"

Maya sighed, rolling her eyes. "Ym emoh kcab ni redro," she said softly.

Immediately, the gouges in her wood floor fixed themselves, the furniture all returned to their rightful places, and the glass fragments and spilled water came back together again.

"Noisivelet no," Maya said as she went over to her door, and her television clicked on.

After quickly stashing her wand in a drawer, Maya threw open the door, giving access to her elderly neighbor. "Hello, Mrs. Takanawa," she said.

The short, gray haired woman didn't respond, instead looking pointedly past Maya into her apartment.

"Why do you have a glass of water sitting in the middle of the floor?" she asked.

Maya resisted the sudden urge to reply with, "Why _wouldn't_ I have a glass of water sitting in the middle of the floor?"

Instead, she said, "It's my apartment, and I can do what I like in it," in as much of a matter-of-fact a tone as she could muster. "Now, do you see any dangerous animals in here, Mrs. Takanawa?"

"No," the old woman admitted reluctantly. "Everything seems to be in order."

"Good," Maya said, "now, please, I'm very busy…"

"A young woman like you shouldn't be working all the time," Mrs. Takanawa commented.

"I'll keep that in mind, ma'am," Maya said.

Mrs. Takanawa hesitated for a moment, obviously searching for some reason not to leave, then she reluctantly walked off, allowing Maya to close the door and breathe a sigh of relief.

"Okay, clearly, practicing here was a bad idea," she said to herself.

This presented a problem, though. While Maya knew that she couldn't solve the rather massive problems she'd been charged with solving from the comfort and privacy of her own apartment, she was loathe to venture outside just for the purpose of shaking off the rust from her skills. What if someone she knew recognized her?

Even without the possibility of being targeted by the likes of SEELE and the Commander, Maya did not want it to become common knowledge that she'd ever had anything to do with magic, real or fake.

Eventually, Maya realized that there was only one solution to this problem.

"This just keeps getting better and better," she grumbled as she went over to her trunk.

Her costume from her stint at the Jade Maiden was another thing she'd kept, though even now Maya couldn't have told anyone why. However, regardless of the reason, it looked like the old thing was going to come in handy to her at least one more time.

Trudging to her bedroom, Maya lost her NERV uniform and donned the attire of her old job. Despite her displeasure at having to put it on again, she couldn't help but feel considerable satisfaction upon finding that it still fit just as well as it did back when she was in college.

_I guess being so finicky about my diet most of time has paid off,_ she thought with satisfaction as she pulled on the fishnet stockings.

She almost donned her high heels, too, then stopped and slipped on a pair of flat shoes instead. Maya suspected she'd be doing a lot of walking that evening, and some concessions to practicality had to be made.

The contents of her bottle of spirit gum were dry as dust, but Maya fixed that with a quick spell and then applied her mask.

"Gentlemen and ladies, Maya Ibuki has disappeared," she said quietly to her reflection. "The Amazing Aya is back."

Then she frowned. Her old stage name was too much like her real one, and even worse, it could be tracked back to her, if someone were to investigate hard enough. She didn't intend to prance around in her costume enough to actually need an alias, but still, it was probably best to be prepared. Certainly if someone asked her who she was, Maya wouldn't be able to come up with something good on the spot. She just wasn't that creative.

"Well," she said to her reflection, "Dad's stage name was always Zatara, which was supposed to sound Western. I guess I might as well use something like that. Zatarista? No…hmm, Zatina? No."

She stroked her chin for a few moments, trying to figure out an alias that she wouldn't feel completely ridiculous with.

"Zatanna," she said at last, struck with sudden inspiration. "That one's not so bad."

Her decision made, Maya, or Zatanna, grabbed her top hat and gave it smack, causing it to pop up. She placed it upon her head, then left her apartment, being very careful to avoid her neighbors on the way out. Finally escaping from the building, she strode out into the cool air of the dark streets, and walked off, headed toward the poorer area of the city, where she was sure there would be ample opportunities to practice her magic.

* * *

Author's Notes: I have to admit that I'm not too pleased with this chapter, since little besides Maya angsting away occurs here. She's got a rather drastic move planned, and I considered having her executing it this chapter, but it just felt like I'd be making the pacing of this frantic if I went that way. Eventually it seemed like there was nothing to do but post this and move on.

Jayelwillow, it was a coincidence really, since I'd decided who I wanted each girl to be before I put the first SOE2 story, Hikari being the exception, of course.

Bissek, the limits of Zatanna's powers have always been quite poorly defined. This is actually one of the reasons I picked gentle little Maya for this role. I don't need to know what she _can't_ do, because I know what she _won't_ do.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks again to my beta reader. Now for a little fun.

* * *

Omake

More Than One Way to Kill a Gendo

Gendo was going to kill Fuyutski for suggesting this.

He and a large number of NERV personnel were crammed inside the base's rarely used auditorium for the "First Annual NERV Talent Show" and he couldn't wait to get the hell away and back to his office.

"Man, did you know Maya could do this?" he heard Aoba ask Makoto.

"No," the bespectacled technician answered back. "Did you know Maya had such great legs?"

Gendo allowed himself a quiet sigh. Ibuki had been one of the first people to sign up for the talent show, and the crowd was loving her magic act. He himself failed to see the appeal of watching a thin wisp of a woman like her perform a few cheap tricks.

"Now," Maya addressed the audience. "For my next illusion, I'm going to need a volunteer from the audience! Do I have a volunteer?"

Numerous hands went up, and she scanned the crowd for several seconds.

"Commander! How about you?" Maya asked, completely ignoring his crossed arms and general I-hate-the-world-and-all-the-cute-and-fuzzy-animals-in-it posture.

"No," he said flatly.

"Aw, come on, it'll only take a second," Maya pleaded.

"No."

"Emoc ereh!" Maya said, waving her wand.

Against his will, the Commander found himself getting up off his chair and walking toward the stage.

"Isn't he a good sport, folks?" Maya asked the crowd.

"I don't know how you're doing this, Ibuki," Gendo said under his breath as he approached, "but rest assured, you _will_ pay for this."

Maya ignored him entirely. "All right, Commander, now I need you to get inside the mystery box."

He looked and saw that the "mystery box" was a long, short wooden container that was large enough to hold a man who was sitting down. It was on legs, which kept it a few feet off the floor.

"No."

"Teg ni eht xob," she hissed.

Again, Gendo felt a mysterious force compel him to do as she commanded, and he obediently got into the box, even closing the lid for her once he was inside.

"Now, ladies and gentlemen," Maya addressed the crowd, "Without harming the Commander in the slightest, I will _impale_ the mystery box, using these swords!"

She threw a curtain off of something turned out to be a sword rack containing a half dozen gleaming blades.

_She wouldn't dare,_ Gendo thought. _She wouldn't even think about it. She wouldn't—_

"Arrgh!" he screamed in pain as Maya drove the first sword right through the box, and him.

"Oh my god!" Maya exclaimed as the auditorium exploded into chaos, seeing the blade emerge from the other end of the box with a coating of red blood. "Someone must have put a real sword in here!"

With the last of his strength, Gendo turned to glare at Maya. The last thing he saw before his world went dark was the tiny smirk she dared to throw his way.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Two:** Zatanna in the House

Kazu would have been the first person to admit that Tokyo-3, the good part of it anyway, was a marvel of modern technology, even if you overlooked its military capabilities. A glittering city of towering skyscrapers, it was equipped with the most modern technology that made the problems that often plagued other cities, like brownouts and difficulties with the sewers, non-existent in Tokyo-3.

Yet for all of that, Kazu often thought that Tokyo-3 felt cold and sterile, lacking any kind of character or local color. He had briefly lived in New York City a few years ago, and _that_ city had more character in one street than all of Tokyo-03 did combined.

So he'd been nothing short of delighted when he'd happened upon a street magician on his way home from work. Though the late hour she'd chosen for performing her act struck him as strange, she was proving herself more than skilled enough at her craft to draw a considerable crowd anyway.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, an old classic made new again!" proclaimed the magician, who was identified as 'Zatanna' by a small sign she had leaning up against a nearby telephone poll.

The masked magician plucked the black top hat she wore off her head and held it out so the audience could see into it. Unsurprisingly, it was completely empty.

"Nothing in my hat…" the magician said.

With a quick flick of her wrist, Zatanna tossed the hat away. It landed bottom up on the sidewalk.

"Watch closely," Zatanna instructed her audience. "Sevod raeppa morf tah!"

All of sudden, a small flock's worth of white doves burst from the top hat which couldn't possibly have contained them all. The audience applauded wildly as the snowy birds took off into the sky, and Zatanna took a bow.

Suddenly, one of the birds relieved itself as it flew off, and the white blob landed right on the front of Kazu's shirt. "Ew," he said with a groan.

"Oh, my apologies, sir," Zatanna said. "Let me take care of that for you. Niats raeppasid!"

Kazu watched in amazement as the bird droppings completely vanished from his shirt. The rest of the audience cheered.

_Why is this woman performing on the street instead of headlining in some big club or on television?_ Kazu wondered, all the more impressed by Zatanna's last trick because he knew he wasn't a plant, unlike the rest of the crowd.

Leaving the stunned man, Zatanna squatted down by her hat. She looked like she was about to pick it up, but then she stopped. "Hmm, it looks like it isn't quite empty yet," she observed. "Stibbar raeppa morf tah!"

Half a dozen white rabbits leapt out of the hat and jumped onto the sidewalk. The bunnies looked startled and seemed like they wanted to escape, but the audience formed a barrier that kept them within the rough circle of space where Zatanna was performing.

"Hmm, somehow, I don't think they'll do too well on the streets," the magician said. "Maybe they'd be more welcome if I changed them to a different form… seinnub emoceb etalocohc!"

There were several puffs of smoke, and when they cleared, the rabbits had been replaced by small chocolate bunnies wrapped in colored tin foil. The crowd applauded wildly, and their cheers only increased in volume when the magician picked up the chocolate treats and tossed them into the audience.

"You've been a great audience, folks!" Zatanna said to everyone with a smile, signaling the end of the performance, much to everyone's disappointment.

The crowd of people gradually began to disperse, several of them dropping various amounts of money into Zatanna's hat before they left. Kazu lingered as everyone departed.

"Hello," he greeted the magician as she gathered up her minimal props.

"Hi," she replied, suddenly sounding tired and not at all cheerful, quite unlike her demeanor when she'd been performing.

This sudden change in attitude briefly threw him for a loop, but he recovered his composure after only a moment. "That was a really great show," he said.

"Thank you, I try my best," Zatanna replied.

This wasn't going as he'd planned at all, but Kazu pushed forward anyway. "You know… it's probably not a good idea to walk around so close to the bad part of the city dressed like that," he said, quickly glancing down at her fishnet-clad legs. "Not at this hour, anyway. I could escort you to wherever you need to go if you like."

She gave him a small smile. "That's very sweet of you," Zatanna said. "But I have a few tricks up my sleeve that aren't meant for entertainment."

"Uh, I see," Kazu said. "I don't suppose you—"

"Good night, sir," Zatanna said gently.

"Ah, good night," Kazu replied, finally accepting that he wasn't going to be getting anywhere with the attractive magician.

_Well, can't win 'em all,_ he thought consolingly to himself as he stuck his hands in his pockets and walked off.

* * *

Zatanna watched the man who'd tried to walk home with her as he departed, absently packing up her things as she did so. The guy wasn't an Adonis, but he was kind of cute, and it wasn't as though she regularly received a ton of offers.

_Forget it, girl_, she told herself. _There aren't enough hours in the day for you already._

With a small sigh, she finished putting all her props into a small case she'd taken with her, picked up said case, and began to head back to her apartment, keeping an eye out for any would-be attackers. Her admirer hadn't been wrong about how a woman, especially one dressed like she was, shouldn't be so close to the bad part of the city, especially not late at night.

Not that she was scared. On the contrary, she half-wanted someone to try and attack her. It would give her a chance to see how well she could use magic when under pressure, and even if her powers were to fail her, she was prepared. With a flick of her wrist, she could have either a taser or a can of pepper spray in hand instantly.

However, no one accosted her on her trip back, and Zatanna was able to slip back into her apartment without any incident.

"Well, I'm definitely getting the knack for magic back," she said to herself as she stripped off her costume, becoming Maya again.

In truth, she was starting to feel almost as though she'd never stopped doing magic at all, and Maya was beginning to wonder how much more good her little street performances could realistically do for her.

Still, she wasn't quite ready to stop doing them yet, not so much because she lacked confidence in powers, but more because she was apprehensive about the next phase of her plan.

"Ugh," Maya said, rubbing her brow. "No more worrying about this. Time to hit the sack."

Turning off the lights, the brunette crawled into her bed, glancing at the clock which sat on her bedside table as she did so. Its glowing numbers proclaimed that it was well after midnight.

_I'm going to hate myself tomorrow morning,_ Maya thought as she closed her eyes.

* * *

"Maya, are you all right?" Ritsuko asked the next day, startling the younger woman out of her stupor.

"Oh, yes, Dr. Akagi, I'm fine," Maya answered in the most chipper voice she could muster, straightening up her posture as she did so.

_Except for the fact that I'm running on not nearly enough sleep and several cups of the sludge that they give out here and have the audacity to call 'coffee',_ she thought gloomily.

"What gave you the idea that there's something wrong?" Maya added as innocently as she could.

"Well, you seem to be working more slowly than usual," Ritsuko said, causing Maya to wince. "And you've had those dark bags under your eyes for days now. Are you sure you're all right, Maya?"

"Just a little insomnia, ma'am," Maya said with a weak smile.

"Ah," Ritsuko said. "Well, I guess it's understandable, given the circumstances, not to mention all the pressure everyone's under. I wish I could offer you a few days off, but I'm afraid I just can't spare you."

Maya nodded. "I understand, sempai," she said. "I'll try not to lose focus again."

Ritsuko nodded and walked off to attend to other matters. Maya watched the faux-blonde as she left, wondering (for seemingly the thousandth time) how someone as beautiful and as brilliant as Ritsuko could have gotten caught up in a plan to destroy the world as they knew it.

Then the scientist left the command center, and Maya turned her attention back to her terminal, vowing not to fall behind again.

She would have liked to think that her recently decreased efficiency was solely the result of how little sleep she'd been getting the past few days, but she knew that wasn't true. Now that she'd realized what NERV was really trying to do, Maya simply didn't get the same sense of fulfillment from completing her tasks there that she once had.

Working at NERV had once been a labor of love, but now it was just a labor.

"_Are _you all right, Maya?" Hyuga abruptly spoke up from his place near her. "Don't take this the wrong way, but, well, you look like hell."

"Thank you for your concern," Maya said, smiling wryly. "But really, I'm fine. Just tired. Like I said, I've been having insomnia."

Aoba shook his head. "I don't get how you can have trouble sleeping," he said. "War or no war, by the end of the day, I'm usually so tired that I could sleep standing up."

Maya could only shrug in response.

"Well, I guess everyone reacts to things differently," Hyuga said. "Fortunately for you, Maya, it looks like we might actually get Sunday off. You should use the time to try and relax and recharge."

Maya smiled weakly. "I have plans for Sunday."

"Hot date?" Aoba asked with a smirk.

"I wish," Maya groaned. "No, I'm just supposed to tutor a friend of mine in physics for a while."

"Sounds like a _load_ of fun," Aoba said sarcastically.

"I prefer it to producing a god-awful racket and then trying to pass it off as 'music'," Maya quipped back as she returned her focus to her work.

Aoba released a snort, and then also diverted his attention back to his job. Hyuga soon did likewise.

However, it wasn't long before Maya's mind began to wander again, Aoba's "hot date" comment making her recall the guy who'd tried to walk her home the previous night. He wasn't the first man who'd made a pass at her while she was being Zatanna, the first few of which had surprised her quite a lot, since she didn't get a whole lot of male attention in what she thought of as her "real" life.

_Figures. Guys barely notice my existence most of the time, but when I put on those damn fishnets they come flocking,_ she thought derisively. _Shows a lot about how the male mind works._

Shaking her head, Maya forcibly refocused her attention on her work.

* * *

By the time the petite technician returned home, she felt about ready to collapse, thanks to the sleep debt she was running and the crash she was suffering from having consumed far too much caffeine to get her through the day.

"Damn street performances," Maya mumbled to herself as she walked into her apartment. "If only I didn't have to work so many hours at NERV, they wouldn't cut into my sleep."

Well, she wouldn't be putting on a show that night. She was tired enough to have trouble talking straight, never mind talking _backwards._

_Let's see,_ Maya thought. _Tomorrow's Saturday, and Sunday I'm supposed to tutor Shinji in physics._ _If I don't go out as Zatanna until then and get two full nights' sleep, I might actually not be useless as a teacher on Sunday._

Buoyed by the thought of what seemed like a huge amount of rest, Maya started the job of preparing a simple dinner for herself, wanting to get some food in her stomach and then crash.

So the ringing of her phone wasn't exactly a welcome sound. Maya sighed as she heard it and went over to check her caller ID, deciding that she'd ignore the call unless it was coming from someone important.

Unfortunately for her ambitions of doing nothing that evening but eating and sleeping, it was.

"Hello," Maya said as she picked up the phone.

"Hello, sister," the voice of Natsume greeted her. "I hope I'm not calling at a bad time. It can be hard to figure out when I should try and contact you, given your crazy hours."

Maya chuckled weakly. "Don't worry, you didn't call at a bad time," she said. "So, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"What? I can't call my sister up every now and then and ask her how she's doing?" Natsume replied with mock indignation.

Maya couldn't help but smile through her weariness. "I'm…"

The petite brunette hesitated, suddenly feeling a near irresistible desire to share her problems with her sister, one of the few people in the world that she trusted implicitly. The weight of her burden still seemed crushing, and she desperately wished she could relieve part of it by telling someone.

"Maya?" Natsume asked after a few seconds of silence.

The sound of her sister's voice jolted Maya back to reality. She couldn't toss her problem onto her sister's shoulders, and even if she could bring herself to do so, she wasn't willing to bet both their lives on her phone calls not being monitored by NERV.

"I'm okay," Maya lied. "But very, very tired. Work's been especially nuts lately."

"Ouch, sorry to hear that," Natsume said sympathetically.

"It goes with the job," Maya said. "So how are you?"

"Oh, same old, same old," Natsume gave the standard answer. "The act is doing as well as ever, I guess, though it was never quite the same after Dad left the stage."

"Uh-huh," Maya replied.

"You know, Maya, you really should try and get home, even if it's only for a day," Natsume said. "I'm sure Dad would be happy to see you."

_And there it is,_ Maya thought, rolling her eyes, even as she smiled ruefully.

Getting Maya and their father to reconcile was something Natsume had been trying to do practically since Maya had left home, though Natsume's once-sporadic attempts at it had become more frequent as of late.

"Dad would only be happy to see me if I came back telling him that I'd quit my job as computer tech and was ready to go into the family business," Maya replied.

"Maya—"

"Look," Maya cut her sister off, "I miss Dad, I really do. I'd make the time to come home if I thought he'd welcome me back, but he made it clear that he didn't want anything to do with me unless I live my life the way he wants me to. I'm not willing to do that. End of story."

"Maybe he's mellowed out on the issue since then," Natsume suggested weakly, almost pleadingly.

"If that's true, then he should call me up himself and say so," Maya replied firmly. "Listen, please just drop it, Natsume."

"Oh, all right," Natsume said resignedly. "I'll let you go now, I guess, so you can get some rest before you have to get back to work."

"Hang on a second, Natsume," Maya said. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Ask away, then," Natsume replied.

"Have you ever… done it?" Maya asked, suddenly more conscious than ever of the possibility that someone was listening in.

"'Done it?'" Natsume repeated with a snicker. "Maya, if you're asking me if I've ever had sex—"

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant," Maya said quickly. "I meant, have you ever used _that_… talent? The one Dad told us only to use in extreme situations."

Natsume sobered instantly. "That one? No, I've never had any reason to use _that_ one," she replied. "Why are you asking me about this, Maya? What's going on?"

"I think I might need to use that ability soon," Maya replied.

"Why?" Natsume asked. "What have you gotten yourself into, Maya?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, Natsume," Maya answered wearily. "Look, I should probably go now."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?" Natsume asked, sounding almost equally tired.

"No," Maya replied simply, silently adding that she wished she could.

Natsume sighed. "Fine, I can tell when you're going to be stubborn about something," she said. "Just be careful, all right? And remember that if you need help with something, you can always give me a call."

"I will, Natsume," Maya replied. "Thanks, and good night."

"Good night, Maya."

The petite woman hung up her phone with a sigh, then paused, sniffing the air. _Smells like… smoke,_ she thought with a frown.

"Ack, my dinner's burning!" Maya exclaimed as she ran toward her stove.

* * *

Sunday came eventually, as the future always does, and Shinji Ikari found himself climbing the stairs of Maya's apartment building, his physics textbook in hand. The Third Child still felt a measure of trepidation about the sudden offer of help at studying he'd received from the technician; it just seemed so out of the blue, and he wasn't one to trust others easily.

Still, he needed the help, and he couldn't think of any way to turn down Maya's offer without offending her, so when he reached the door to her apartment, he dutifully pressed the buzzer.

The door opened almost immediately, as though she'd been waiting just inside her apartment for him. It startled Shinji, but he failed to make the leap of logic that would let him realize she'd been waiting anxiously for him.

"Uh, hello, Ibuki-san," he greeted her.

"I thought I told you to call me 'Maya', Shinji," the tech said mildly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Maya," Shinji apologized at once.

"It's all right, Shinji," Maya said, offering him a smile. "Just try not to forget again. Now, why don't you come in?"

Shinji nodded and followed her into her modest home, looking around with the silently critical eye of a neat freak. Maya's apartment was quite neat and tidy, which was impressive given her often-hectic schedule. However, he couldn't help but note that there was very little in the way of personal effects around, as was the case in his own room.

"Would you like something to drink before we start?" Maya asked, leading Shinji to the kitchen. "I have juice, soda, and water."

"Oh, I wouldn't want to impose," Shinji said at once.

"It's not an imposition for a guest to accept an offer of a drink, Shinji," Maya replied with a touch of exasperation as she opened her refrigerator to get something for herself.

"Um, in that case, I guess I'll have a soda," Shinji said. "If that's okay."

Maya nodded and bent over slightly as she reached for the shelf in her fridge where she kept all her canned drinks. Shinji, without quite realizing what he was doing, began to stare at her as she did so. The petite woman was currently wearing a simple T-shirt and a pair of baggy shorts. She wasn't exactly dressed to impress, but still…

_I never realized she had such nice legs,_ he thought to himself.

Maya, grabbing two cans of soda, stood up straight and turned around. Shinji quickly diverted his eyes upwards, but not before she'd realized that he'd been looking at her. Knowing he'd been caught, Shinji blushed and looked downwards.

For her own part, Maya couldn't help but smirk slightly, recalling the times she'd overheard Katsuragi talking to Ritsuko about Shinji. The purple-haired woman seemed to take an almost evil glee from teasing the poor boy. Now Maya finally understood why; it really didn't take much at all. He probably lost it entirely when Katsuragi started on him.

_Speaking of Katsuragi, it's nice that a guy who lives with her would take a second look at me,_ she thought. _Even if he is a hormonal teenager._

"So, Shinji, what are you having trouble with in physics?" Maya asked.

Shinji looked up and blinked, surprised that he wasn't being subjected to a Misato-style teasing session or an Asuka-style yelling session for his roving eyes. "Huh?"

"Physics," Maya said gently. "You did come here to get tutoring on the subject, didn't you?"

"Oh… oh, right!" Shinji said, quickly setting his book down on the kitchen table. "Um, right now the thing I'm having the most trouble with are the laws of thermodynamics. I get what they mean in theory, sort of, but in practice…" he trailed off, spreading his hands to show his helplessness.

"Well, let's get to work, then," Maya said as she cracked open her can of soda.

The next hour and a half was spent discussing the nature of entropy and the other undeniable realities discovered by modern physics. To Maya's surprise, Shinji proved to be an apt student, despite obviously having little enthusiasm for the whole thing. He quickly picked up the concepts she conveyed to him, usually without needing anything explained to him twice. She had peeked at his school records a while ago, and his grades had indicated that he was of average or perhaps even slightly below-average intellect. However, this didn't seem to be the case.

"You're doing very well, Shinji," she said. "I'm surprised you need any tutoring at all."

He scratched the back of his bashfully and looked away. "Well, I can't really figure it out by myself, and our teacher doesn't really explain it."

"What does he do during your classes then?" Maya asked with a frown.

"He lectures about history, mostly," Shinji said. "Second Impact and just before."

Maya rolled her eyes. "Oh, brother," she groaned. "So he's one of those."

It wasn't very uncommon in the current day and age to encounter people who were forever going on about the "glory" of the pre-Second Impact world. While there was no arguing that the event had been a horrible tragedy, it had also allowed for a greater degree of unity and cooperation among the nations of Earth, and Maya was of the opinion that people who spent all their time pining for the days before the cataclysm were firmly (and foolishly) stuck in the past.

"Uh, yeah, I guess he is," Shinji said, not really knowing what Maya meant when she referred to his teacher as one of "those" but not wanting to question her.

"Well, I guess the schools must be pretty hard up for teachers," Maya said. "Which means they can't be very picky."

"Um, yeah," Shinji agreed. "Listen, Ibuk…Maya, this has been extremely helpful, but I should probably head home. I need to start working on dinner pretty soon."

Maya nodded and got up to see him out. "What are you planning to make?" she asked.

"Oh, probably just ramen, again," he said with a sigh. "I'm not very good with coming up with new ideas every night, and it's not like I know how to cook such a wide variety of meals, anyway."

"Maybe I can help," Maya said, going over to her kitchen counter.

The tech grabbed a small black book, in which she kept scraps of paper with recipes on them. She flipped through it for a few seconds before she found the one she wanted, taking it out of the book and offering it to Shinji.

"Here," she said. "This recipe is really delicious, and it's easy to make."

"Oh, I can't take that," Shinji said. "Then you won't have it anymore."

"Nonsense," Maya replied. "I use this recipe so much that I've pretty much memorized it by now. Go ahead."

"Are you sure?" Shinji asked.

"Positive," Maya said firmly.

Shinji finally relented and accepted the piece of paper. "Thank you," he said.

"It's really nothing," Maya said. "So, when should we schedule your next tutoring session for?"

"You really don't have to keep tutoring me, Maya," Shinji said. "You've already been a big help. I'm sure you have better things to do than teach me stuff I should be able to pick up by myself. Besides, it's not like I'm all that bright anyway. I'm probably just going to end up forgetting most of this. I don't want you to waste your time on me."

"I don't mind helping you, and you really shouldn't be expected to learn with effectively no one teaching you," Maya said firmly. "So let's say we'll meet here again next week? Same time?"

"All… all right," Shinji said, having been backed into a corner. Then he gave her a quick bow, bid her good-bye, and left the apartment.

Once he was gone, Maya allowed herself to lean against a nearby wall and sigh softly. Just like she'd gotten a small insight into the mind of Misato Katsuragi earlier, she'd gotten one into the mind of Asuka Langley Soryu as well.

She now understood—partly—why the Second Child was often short with the Third. Simply put, Shinji could be annoying. The way he was constantly down on himself, the aura of sadness he seemed to carry with him, and his extreme reluctance to accept even the smallest act of kindness were all exasperating. Even while she'd been tutoring him, the nearly visible cloud of gloom that followed him about hadn't been quite dispelled.

_It's not his fault that he's like that,_ Maya chided herself. _All things considered, he's held up remarkably well._

Still, the prospect of finding a way to cheer Shinji up was a daunting one, which only served to make her overall task more intimidating still.

Maya shook her head to clear these thoughts. She'd been feeling afraid and overwhelmed by the task that Balthasar had given her for so long that she was just plain sick of feeling that way. Doing her best to banish these thoughts from her mind, the brunette turned to the task of making her own dinner.

_If I eat early, I can take my act to the streets and still be back here before midnight,_ she thought, the idea of becoming Zatanna again not exactly filling her with excitement.

With a sigh, Maya dutifully headed for the closet where she kept all her magic stuff.

* * *

"And now for my final trick!" Zatanna said, garnering a few disappointed noises from the crowd. "For this one, I'll need a volunteer from the audience! Anyone? Anyone?"

A few hands quickly went up, and the masked magician pointed at the nearest one with her magic wand. "You, sir, please step forward."

Her volunteer walked up to her, and Zatanna handed the man a small plastic hoop. "All right, good sir, I need you to prove to the rest of the audience that my next spell is no trick by using that."

"Um, how am I supposed to do that?" the man asked, clearly befuddled.

Zatanna smiled. "Don't worry, my good man, it'll be obvious in a second," she said. "Now, please, take a step back. I need a little room for this one."

Her volunteer obediently retreated a couple of paces, and Zatanna shook out her arms, as if loosening the muscles. Showmanship—it was the key to putting on a good performance, even more than the magic.

"Annataz sklaw no ria!" Zatanna said, waving her wand about theatrically.

The crowd watched with anticipation, but nothing happened. They gave the entertainer, whose show had been nothing short of masterful up to that point, confused looks. Zatanna smirked, and then she took a step… right up onto thin air, where she hovered steadily. It was like she'd begun to ascend an invisible staircase.

The crowd cheered and applauded in amazement. Then, Zatanna gestured for her volunteer to step forward. The man did so, and then moved the hoop up over her head. He slowly sent it down around the masked magician's body, and then pulled it back once it had passed her feet, soundly proving that there were no invisible strings present anywhere. The crowd applauded again.

"Thank you, sir," Zatanna told her volunteer. "You've been a great sport. Here, have a little something for your trouble."

With a flick of her wrist, a red flower appeared in her hand, which she gave to the volunteer. Several members of the audience chuckled as he bashfully accepted it and then returned to the crowd.

"Give him a hand, folks," Zatanna urged, and the audience politely did so. When they were done, she continued. "Now, I'm sure you're all wondering how it is that I'm standing on air a foot or so off the ground. Well, ladies and gentlemen, the truth is, it's _not_ magic."

Again, the audience gave her a confused look.

"No, this trick is all just a bunch of hot air," Zatanna said with a mock sigh. "See?"

In one quick movement, she took off her top hat and turned it upside down. A storm of multicolored, hot air balloons burst out, all of them going floating off into the sky. Zatanna's feet returned to the ground, and the audience cheered.

"Thank you, and good night, everyone!" Zatanna said. "You've been a great audience."

The crowd quickly dispersed, but not before a number of them had left some money for her. Profit had been the furthest thing from her mind when she'd started doing these shows, but she was making a pretty decent amount of money anyway.

_It's a pity I don't have the time to treat myself to something nice with it,_ she thought as she collected her earnings. _I would practically _kill_ for a trip to a spa right now._

Once she'd packed up her minimal gear, Zatanna set off, once again heading for home, but this time using a more… indirect route. She walked straight into the bad part of the city, rather than simply skirting the place where affluence met destitution.

_I really wouldn't have thought it would be this hard to attract some undue attention,_ she thought, forcing a certain nonchalance into her mental voice. _Especially not in _this_ getup._

Indeed, not a single person had harassed her on her walks back home, something that both relieved and exasperated her. The idea of confronting attackers was daunting to her, despite her powers, but she needed to test her magic when she was under duress.

Tonight, she was determined to do so (even as part of her hoped that she _still_ wouldn't attract the attention of any violent individuals). To that end, she had even donned her high-heeled, black leather boots that came up to just above her knees. The things were murder on her feet, but they had always gotten her a little extra attention from the patrons of the Jade Maiden when she'd worked there.

_This is a bad idea,_ she thought as she looked around the dilapidated neighborhood.

The whole area couldn't have said "place where women should _NOT_ go alone" more loudly if someone had put up a billboard to that effect, and every instinct in the magician's body told her that she should get out while she still could.

_Would you relax?_ She told herself sternly. _You're not a normal woman. You have nothing to worry about._

This thought fortified her courage… until she started thinking about everything that could go wrong.

_What if a bunch of people attack me at once? And they cover my mouth up right away so I can't talk? And they pin my arms so I can't get at my pepper spray or taser?_ She thought.

This pretty much assumed that anyone she ran into who wished her harm would know exactly how to neutralize her magic powers and that she was carrying weapons, which was extremely unlikely. However, this never really occurred to Zatanna.

_Maybe I should just—_

"Hey, there, baby."

Zatanna whirled about to see a gang of thugs not far from where she stood. They were exactly the group she'd been seeking and yet hoping not to encounter all along. She swallowed.

"Wh-Who are you?" she asked.

"You don't know us?" the obvious leader of the group asked with mock surprise. "You must be new in town, babe. We're the Bloods. We own these streets."

"And what do you want from me?" Zatanna asked, aware that her voice was coming out in a squeak but unable to do anything about it.

The leader chuckled. "Oh, 'bout the same thing you want from us, I expect."

"Huh?"

"Come on, baby, no woman dresses like that and walks around here unless she's looking for a few good men," the leader said with a smirk. "So let's say we get nice and cozy…"

"No!" Zatanna said, pulling out her wand and pointing it at the man. "Stay back!"

The thug just laughed. "What are you gonna do? Turn me into a frog or something?"

"That's not a bad idea," Zatanna said. "Peerc otni gorf!"

There was a flash of light smoke, and when it had cleared, a frog sat on the pavement where the leader of the gang had been mere seconds before. As the rest of the gang stared at it in shocked silence, it's neck bulged, and it let out a croak. Then it started to hop away.

"She turned Ichigo into a frog!" one of the other gang members shouted, finally breaking the silence.

"She'll pay for this!" another yelled, drawing a pistol from inside his jacket.

"Nug semoceb ekans!" Zatanna snapped.

The metal of the gang member's firearm twisted and warped, turning from matte black to a dull green color and parts of it fusing together. In seconds, the gun had transformed into a snake, a snake that was hissing angrily at the man who held it.

"Damn it!" the guy screamed, dropping it to the concrete.

"That's it! Get her!" one of the thugs yelled, and as one, they charged the brunette.

"Stsug wolb eht dab syug kcab!" Zatanna yelled.

A powerful blast of wind shot forth from the tip of the magician's wand, blasting into the charging group of young men with the force of a hurricane. They released cries of shock and rage as they were all flung backwards, landing painfully on the pavement.

"I don't suppose you've all learned your lesson now?" Zatanna asked, brandishing her wand.

"Screw you, bitch!" one of thugs yelled.

"Apparently not," Zatanna observed. "Maybe a little time in cuter, gentler forms will mellow you boys out a bit. Skrej emoceb stibbar!"

There were multiple puffs of smoke, and suddenly the Bloods had been replaced by the Bunnies. Zatanna smiled as the long eared animals all paused for a second, stunned, and then went hopping off in all directions.

"Slamina egnahc kcab ni eno keew," Zatanna said after a few seconds, deciding she had no right to leave people in animal form permanently and putting a time limit on the spell.

Watching the last of the rabbits as they hopped off into the shadows, Zatanna lowered her wand, realizing for the first time that she was breathing hard. Her heart was pounding, and she was sure that her system was flooded with adrenaline.

All of this was far from startling, however, given what had just happened. What _did_ surprise her was that she actually felt good.

_That was… actually kind of fun,_ she thought, unable to believe that she was reacting to what had just happened in such a manner. She had never been one for action, adventure, and adrenaline rushes in the past.

_Must be the endorphins,_ she thought, trying to pretend that there wasn't a silly little grin on her face.

Reaching up, Zatanna adjusted the top hat on her head, while trying to bring herself down from the unexpected high she found herself on.

_Well, it looks like I can cast spells just fine when under pressure,_ she thought. _Which means…_

Zatanna's cheerful mood instantly went southward. She'd satisfied her own final condition and proved that she could do magic even when it counted, which meant that she had no more excuse to keep delaying the execution of her plan. It was time to take drastic action.

Of course, that meant getting across the city first.

"I hate doing this," Zatanna groaned softly. "Sdniw wolb, raeb em hguorht eht yks!"

A great gust of air began to swirl around the masked magician, sending the tails of her tuxedo jacket whipping about wildly. The wind churned, blowing faster and more strongly with every second. Somehow, her top hat was completely undisturbed by the gales.

Then, a most extraordinary thing happened. Zatanna's feet were lifted off the sidewalk, and she was slowly but surely propelled ever higher into the air, until she was lifted high into the night sky like some kind of mysterious spirit.

"I hate heights," she said softly as she looked down at the ground, which seemed very far away at this point. "I hate flying."

Of course, she'd been doing a lot of things she hated lately, and neither complaining about it nor feeling sorry for herself made any of it any better. So with this in mind, she began to make her way through the air by directing the winds that held her aloft, having them take her to a structure on the edge of the city, namely Commander Ikari's home.

She had never been to the place before, but she'd heard plenty about it. Commander Ikari had once lived within the Geofront, but he had, not too long ago, relocated to a dwelling on the surface of the city. According to rumor, he'd made the move because NERV's public relations department was constantly harassing him to do so, since they'd felt that living underground had made the Commander come off to the public as something of a gremlin.

Also according to rumor, while the Commander had eventually given in to the PR guys, he had had his new home built with so much security that it resembled a prison, either in a deliberate act to annoy the PR department or simply out of a lack of understanding of what normal humans would find unnerving or off-putting.

Whatever the real reason for the Commander's relocation and the stupendous security measures that went with his new home, it allowed Zatanna to find it with relative ease, since the place wasn't hard to spot, even from the air.

_About as inviting as I'd heard it was,_ she decided, landing a safe distance away from the structure.

A chain-link fence surrounded the entire structure, and barbed wire ensured that no one would be climbing over it any time soon. Though it was already dark, Zatanna could easily see the shapes of men—obviously security guards—moving about the property.

_He's a paranoid one, isn't he?_ Zatanna thought as she took all of it in.

She couldn't understand why he felt the need for _this much_ security. After all, so far as most people knew, Gendo Ikari was leading the effort to save humanity. Even though he wasn't exactly a likable person, she wouldn't expect any great number of people to be after his blood.

Eventually, she shook her head, dispelling these thoughts. The level of security in his home was largely irrelevant, because none of it could stand up to her magic, unless…

Zatanna reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small pointed crystal that was tied to a string. It looked like a simple pendulum, but it was far more than that. She held it out, extending her arm toward the highly guarded home. The crystal swung gently from its string before going still, looking cold, inert, and quite normal.

_No magical defenses,_ she thought. _Just like I suspected. Well, I guess it's time to get to work._

Raising her wand, Zatanna spoke, "Sdraug peels."

Immediately, she saw the dimly outlined forms of the men beyond the fence collapse to the ground. Nodding in satisfaction, the mistress of magic began to walk toward the property.

"Rewop tuo!" she commanded, waving her wand as she advanced.

Immediately, the security lights around the property winked out, and the surveillance cameras that were placed in strategic locations died.

_Even the most advanced security system isn't much use without electricity,_ Zatanna thought with satisfaction.

Then, to her surprise, heavy metal shutters slammed down over all the doors and windows of the large house, completely sealing it off from the outside world. She blinked, realizing that there must have been some kind of dead-man's switch in place to do that, in case of a power outage. Despite herself, she was impressed by whoever had designed the place.

_Not like it can stop me, though,_ she thought.

"Eloh smrof ni ecnef," she said.

Immediately, the chain link fence broke in several places, creating a hole large enough for her to pass through. Zatanna advanced toward the front door of the large house, weaving around unconscious security guards as she did so.

"Tsur," she commanded as she approached the front door.

The metal shutter that covered the entryway quickly began to change to an orange brown color, as though years were passing in seconds. Within moments, it had rusted away to dust.

To her amusement, Zatanna discovered that the front door was unlocked. She walked into the dark home and whispered, "Dnaw thgil."

A soft blue glow began to emanate from the tip of her wand, which she held up like a torch. The dark interior of the home was Spartan, barely decorated, and there was a coldness about the décor that reflected the personality of the man who called it 'home'. In the house of the demon himself, with darkness all around her, Zatanna felt her confidence begin to desert her.

_You're in too deep to back out now,_ she told herself firmly, trying to ignore the way her palms were sweating and the way her heart was pounding.

All her senses on alert for any sign of the Commander, Zatanna wandered about until she found a flight of stairs, which she began to climb. She winced with every creak of the floorboards beneath her high-heeled boots, feeling almost like she had when she was a child, sneaking downstairs to the kitchen in the middle of the night in search of sweets.

Of course, the stakes were _much_ higher now than they'd been back then.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Zatanna held her wand out into the hallway. When there was no reaction from anyone, she stepped forward.

And a gunshot rang out.

Zatanna screamed as a bullet slammed into her shoulder, the metal projectile feeling like pain given physical form. The masked magician went tumbling backwards, falling down the stairs until she landed at the bottom.

Her entire universe seemed to consist of nothing but agony and the bullet in her shoulder, which her mind painted as an utterly enormous round and glowing white with impossible heat. The pain seemed too much for her to think through.

_Remember, Maya-chan, the show must always go on!_ A voice that sounded suspiciously like her father also piped up, somehow cutting through her agony.

Normally, she wouldn't have taken kindly to such chiding from her subconscious, but at the moment, such concerns seemed genuinely petty.

"Tellbu reapsradiss," she hissed.

Nothing happened, and Zatanna immediately realized that she had garbled the spell. She hadn't made an error when using backwards speech in years, not even when she'd first started again in the wake of Balthasar's intrusion in her life. Then again, she'd never had a bullet in her shoulder while trying to cast magic, either.

"Tulleb reapssid," she tried again, but once more, nothing happened.

_Damn it!_ She thought. _Come on, Maya, pull yourself together!_

"Tellbe raeppasid," she forced out, and failed for a third time out of three. Distantly, she felt tears of pain and frustration running down her face.

Before she could try again, she heard the creaking of floorboards as Gendo Ikari began to descend the stairs toward her. Zatanna looked up at him. The Commander was clad in simple pajamas, which a distant part of her mind thought was very strange. She had somehow imagined the man as being clad in his NERV uniform 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The gun that he kept pointed directly at her, however, didn't contradict with any of the visions or opinions she'd had of him at all.

"You know," he commented, "I always suspected that someone would try to assault me in my home one day, but I never believed whoever did it would be wearing such a ridiculous costume."

Zatanna felt a flare of anger at the insult, then wondered why, since she herself had always thought of the costume the Jade Maiden had given her as at least a little absurd.

"You…" Gendo said, then trailed off for a moment. "Don't I know you?"

In spite of her pain, Zatanna was still able to wince at this. It was dark, the man had probably been rudely woken up mere minutes ago, and he _still_ realized that she looked familiar to him. Clearly, her disguise wasn't up to par.

Of course, one way or another, that really wasn't going to matter very much soon.

"Dorp het nug!" she snapped, to no effect.

"Stop speaking gibberish," Gendo said harshly. "Tell me who you are, who sent you, and how you were able to get this far, now. Or else."

This said, he pointed his gun right at her left kneecap, efficiently eliminating the need for her to ask, "'Or else' what?"

There was a bullet in Zatanna's shoulder, Gendo was pointing a gun at her, and she was too frightened and in too much pain to cast a spell at the moment. It looked like the career of Zatanna was about to meet a quick, inglorious end.

_Remember, improvise on stage if necessary,_ the voice in her head that was annoyingly similar to her father's spoke up again.

Irksome or not, it was good advice, and Zatanna took it immediately. With a flick of her wrist, a can of pepper spray appeared in her right hand. Before Gendo could react to its sudden appearance, and indeed, before he even noticed it, Zatanna had depressed the button on the top, sending a thick mist of the noxious substance right at the Commander's face.

Caught entirely by surprise, Gendo howled in pain and dropped his weapon, wiping desperately at his face in a futile struggle to stop the awful burning sensation.

With the situation showing some semblance of being under her control, Zatanna was able to work through the pain at last.

"Tellub raeppasid," she commanded, instantly feeling a measure of blessed relief as the metal slug that was lodged inside of her rapidly shrank and then vanished into nothingness. "Laeh em."

Her wounds quickly closed up, the pain receding as they did so, allowing her to truly think clearly again at last.

Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one who'd regained her composure. Gendo had finally managed to collect himself enough to work through the effects that came with receiving a face full of pepper spray, and he lunged at Zatanna, his hands going for her throat.

In the split second before his gloved hands met their target, Zatanna's eyes widened. Him getting a hold of her throat would be nearly the worst case scenario; if she was rendered unable to speak, if her voice was damaged…

"POTS!" she shouted.

Gendo froze immediately, his whole body becoming immobile, his hands mere centimeters away from her neck. Zatanna released a sigh of relief.

"You're a very stubborn man, did you know that?" she asked him.

Unable to answer her, Gendo just glared murderously at Zatanna. Unperturbed, the sorceress clicked her tongue, sizing up the situation and wondering what the best way to achieve her ends was.

First she made the blood she'd spilled vanish with a quick spell, not wanting to take any risk that a DNA test would later show she'd been there. Fortunately, she'd had the foresight to wear her white gloves, so she wouldn't have to worry about fingerprints, even if the police were called in.

She magically forced Gendo to walk back up the stairs and to his room, deciding that it would be best if everything looked as normal as possible come morning. To that end, she also made the pepper spray she'd unleashed disappear, though she would have been more than happy to leave his eyes and skin in burning agony for some time longer, especially considering that he'd shot her.

"Tis no eht deb," she ordered him.

The Commander of NERV obediently sat down on his bed, the murderous glare he was directing her way never wavering in its intensity. He wasn't wearing his orange glasses, and that diminished the overall effect, in Zatanna's opinion.

"Gendo Ikari," she said formally as she tucked away her wand in her sleeve, "you seek to sacrifice the entire world in the name of your selfish desires. You have abused innocent children, and you had a hand in initiating Second Impact, which killed three _billion_ people. For your heinous crimes, I hereby strip you of a vital part of what makes you who you are."

With that said, she reached out, pressing her palms to either side of his head. Her brow furrowed as she invoked one of her most dangerous abilities.

Gendo's eyes widened, practically bugging out of his head. A low groan sounded from deep in his throat, but Zatanna's magic kept him from crying out or uttering a single word. Still, she could see the desperate, horrified look in his gaze.

"You deserve it," Zatanna hissed. "You should just be glad that I don't have the stomach to kill you, Ikari."

Eventually, it ended. Gendo's eyes rolled back into his head, and his entire body went limp. Zatanna pushed him, and he fell backwards, his upper body sprawling out on top of his bed. Nodding with satisfaction, the sorceress quickly made her way out of his bedroom.

* * *

The next morning, Gendo Ikari awoke with a groan. His head was pounding, and his body ached. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair as he sat up, wincing as he got out of the awkward position he'd apparently slept in.

Why had he gone to bed like that? Shouldn't any fool know that it was a way to guarantee a painful morning?

He didn't know the answer to that. In place of where the memories of the previous night should have been, there was only a great, yawning abyss in his mind.

He got to his feet, his joints popping painfully as he did so. However, this didn't concern him so much as the feeling of _wrongness_ that settled about him as he took in his surroundings.

It was the room. The room was wrong… or at least, he thought it was. He wasn't quite sure, and something about that quietly terrified him.

Shaking his head in a vain attempt to clear it, he staggered over to the far wall where a small mirror was hanging. His body protested the motion, still suffering from the uncomfortable position it had been in for hours. He paid this no heed.

The bearded, bedraggled face he saw when he reached the mirror filled him with the same sense of wrongness that the room did. He wasn't sure whether that face belonged there or not.

He took his gaze off the mirror and looked about the room, almost desperately searching for some anchor, something that he was sure was _right_, and receiving no gratification.

"Where am I?" he asked, then turned back to the mirror, getting no more reassurance from the sight of his own face. "_Who_ am I?"

* * *

Author's Notes: Ah, the mind wipes, one of Zatanna's most potent and downright frightening abilities (seriously, she freaked the hell out of _Batman_ at one point, when he realized how liberally she using that ability). It's actually one of the reasons I picked Zatanna's powers for Maya. I wanted to give her an option that was in between killing Gendo and doing nothing to him directly. Of course, now one can only guess what will come of this move. Well, unless you're me. I know, but I'm not telling. *evil grin*

I think I might have lingered on Maya's street performances too long, but it's unlikely she'll be doing them again, so I decided not to trim them down.

As always, thanks to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well.

* * *

Omake

Inevitable Omake Crossover

The metal shutter that covered the entryway quickly began to change to an orange brown color, as though years were passing in seconds. Within moments, it had rusted away to dust.

To her amusement, Zatanna discovered that the front door was unlocked. She walked into the dark home and whispered, "Dnaw thgil."

A soft blue glow began to emanate from the tip of her wand, which she held up like a torch. The dark interior of the home was Spartan, barely decorated, and there was a coldness about the décor that reflected the personality of the man who called it 'home'. In the house of the demon himself, with darkness all around her, Zatanna felt her confidence begin to desert her.

So it was little surprise that she nearly jumped out of her skin when someone yelled at her.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" came a woman's English accented voice.

Zatanna spun. "Who are…wait, _J.K. Rowling_?"

"Yes, that's me, and you're stealing me spell there," the famed authoress said angrily.

"Huh?"

Glaring daggers at Zatanna, the English writer took a wand out of her sleeve and said, "_Lumos_," causing the tip to light up just like Zatanna's.

"Oh, that," Zatanna said. "Look, I really don't think you can copyright a spell for making light, especially since I didn't use the same incantation. So, if you please, I'm kind of busy here."

"Oh no you don't!" the Englishwoman exclaimed. "_Stupify!_"

Zatanna let out a yelp and barely managed to avoid the jet of light that shot out at her.

_Okay, clearly she needs to start writing again,_ the masked magician thought.

"Pots!" Zatanna exclaimed, pointing her wand at her opponent.

"Do you think you can stop me?" the writer demanded. "You are a character, and I am an _author_!"

_Crap, she's right,_ Zatanna thought. _I need help._

"Mike!" she called. "A little assistance here? Mike?!"

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain fan fiction author was away from his computer, browsing his bookshelf. "Hmm, it's been a while since I read _Prisoner of Azkaban_…"

(A/N: I also don't own Harry Potter, and I wish Ms. Rowling nothing but the best.)


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from the fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it. I am making no profit from this fan fiction, and no infringement is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Three: **The Butterfly Effect

After she returned home from the house of Gendo Ikari, Maya had expected that she'd sleep like a rock.

It hadn't been an absurd expectation to hold. After all, the sorceress had spent most of the night out casting spells, fighting, and escaping from bad situations. She hadn't even left immediately after she'd mind wiped the Commander. Instead she'd spent extra time and energy to repair the damage she'd done to his house to reset his security system. All that should have left her exhausted enough to crash as soon as her head touched her pillow.

Not only that, but she had finally gone and done the most important (and frightening) thing in her scheme to hopefully derail all the plans for a Third Impact. She should've felt like a massive weight had fallen from her shoulders, which also should have facilitated her ability to spend what little time was available to her sleeping.

Yet this wasn't the case. The moment Maya got into bed, the doubts and fears began to creep into her mind.

_What have I done?_ She wondered. _I…I erased a man's memory. I wiped his mind._

At the time, and when she was planning to do it, the deed had seemed like only what Ikari deserved. In fact, it had seemed far _better_ than what Ikari deserved. But now that she'd done it, she found herself wondering what gave _her_ the right to mete out such harsh punishment. She had taken a critical part of the man from him, on the authority of no one but herself. And, when it came down to it, the only thing that made her different from any other person was that she was _Homo Magi_, and that didn't automatically make her right by any stretch of the imagination.

After all, her father was _Homo Magi_, too…

Finally, she sternly told herself to stop this line of thought, because she was just torturing herself to no purpose. She could not undo what she had done, so there was no point in second guessing herself now.

This thought calmed her down somewhat, but just when it seemed like she might finally manage to get some sleep, another idea struck her.

She never had fully thought about the _repercussions_ of the act she had committed. If anything, she'd always pictured it as akin to deleting a line of code in a computer program; delete the right line, and the whole program would crash. Gendo Ikari had certainly seemed like an important enough figure to be that line, but…

_I'm not dealing with a computer program here, but a scheme created and maintained by people,_ Maya thought as she tossed and turned restlessly.

And despite all the advances in computer sciences that had taken place to date, human beings were still the best when it came to adapting to new situations.

Heaving a sigh, Maya realized that she wished she could speak to her father. He hadn't spent his whole life being just a stage magician. Before he had "retired" to the stage, Takeshi Ibuki had used his powers to combat demonic entities and warped magic users. He'd used his ability to wipe people's minds in the past. Apparently, it had never come back to bite him.

It had been years since Maya had so hungered to see her father; she had missed him often over the years, but not since she'd just started life on her own had she felt such an intense _need_ to see the man, not just to request his wisdom, but to confess what she'd done to him and hopefully have him tell her that it was all right.

Yet her pride wouldn't allow it. The issue that had kept them apart for so long was the one thing Maya had ever really been prideful about, and she was still loathe to give it up.

Rolling over for what felt like the thousandth time since she'd gone to bed, Maya looked at her clock and saw that she only had about forty minutes left before she had to get up anyway. With a groan of defeat, she sat up, deciding that there was no point in trying to find sleep any longer.

Dragging herself to the bathroom, Maya was unsurprised to see that her reflection looked particularly worn and drawn that morning. She chuckled mirthlessly as she observed her bloodshot eyes.

"Magic _always_ comes with a price," she muttered to herself.

Most people who didn't know actually know much about magic usually assumed that the price was always something appropriately fantasy-esque: a promise to hand over her first born child, some of her blood, a year from her life, or just something else that could have easily come from a pulp swords and sorcery novel. Sometimes it was; the mystic nightmares that had haunted her after she'd used her tarot cards came instantly to mind.

Yet sometimes, oftentimes, it wasn't. Oftentimes, the price was something as mundane as the gnawing fear that one hadn't done the right thing.

* * *

Meanwhile, halfway across the city, the amnesiac Commander of NERV wasn't having a much better morning. He'd ransacked his own room, hoping to find some kind of diary, from which he could learn about who he was. However, he was apparently not the type to keep a written account of his own life, which somehow didn't surprise him.

The only thing he'd found that served to illuminate his situation was his wallet, which contained all of his ID.

Apparently, his name was Gendo Ikari, and he was the commander of some organization called NERV.

"'God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world,'" he read off the NERV emblem printed in the corner of the plastic card he held.

Gendo's bearded face twisted into a grimace; everything was most certainly _not_ right with the world. It seemed he was a powerful man, and powerful men often had powerful enemies. This was something he just knew intuitively.

Without any knowledge of his enemies, he had a feeling that things would _not_ go well for him.

The possibility that one of his enemies might be behind his amnesia was not lost on him, but Gendo couldn't give the idea any real credence. It seemed _very_ unlikely to him that one of his foes would go to such trouble to leave him helpless rather than just killing him, and if they could erase his brain, they could doubtlessly have put a bullet into it far more easily.

_I can't let it become public knowledge that I've somehow lost my memory,_ he decided at once. _But how long can I possibly keep up the façade?_

"Hopefully, for as long as I need to," he muttered to himself as he put his ID card back into his wallet.

After a bit of scouting around, he was able to locate his bathroom. Once he had washed, Gendo returned to his bedroom, where he donned one of the many uniforms that was waiting inside his closet. This, he suspected, would be the easiest part of his day.

Once that was done with, he went downstairs, located his kitchen, and managed to prepare himself a filling, if rather tasteless meal with the foodstuffs he had on hand. He reasoned that if he had to spend the day groping about blindly, he might as well do so on a full stomach.

As soon as he was finished with this, it was time for his first major obstacle of the day: getting to work. What had presumably been routine for him only yesterday now seemed to be a perilous journey, and he could only hope he discovered some way to find NERV headquarters with little difficulty.

However, as it turned out, he need not have been worried. As soon as he stepped outside of his home, he spotted a black sedan waiting right in the driveway. Leaning against it was a man wearing a simple black uniform and reading a newspaper.

"Ikari-san," he greeted as soon as he noticed Gendo, putting the newspaper down and giving the bearded man a slight bow. "You were so late, I wasn't sure you were going in to the base today."

"I am simply running a bit behind today," Gendo replied in a cold tone that somehow felt as comfortable to him as a well worn glove.

The driver shrugged, unperturbed by his employer's frosty demeanor. "Whatever you say, Ikari-san," he replied. "Do you wish to go to NERV now?"

"Yes," was Gendo's curt response as he climbed into the back of the car.

The driver got behind the wheel and started the engine, and moments later, the car was heading through the streets of Tokyo-3. The driver didn't try to make conversation as he drove, which Gendo found himself grateful for. It gave him the opportunity to take in the cityscape, which was all as unfamiliar to him as the interior of his bedroom had been.

His eyebrows went up as the driver took the car into a deep tunnel, silently wondering where exactly it would lead. He was unable to stop himself from releasing a small gasp when the car emerged from the other end of the tunnel.

_Incredible,_ he thought, _it's a real Geofront_.

"Still impressive, even after so long, isn't it, Ikari-san?" the driver asked.

"Indeed," Gendo agreed, wondering just what sort of affairs he had gotten himself entangled with.

He could only hope that it would be a long time before whatever enemies he had started to make trouble for him.

* * *

Meanwhile, in far away Germany, Lorenz Keel was receiving a telephone call. Shuffling over to the ringing phone, the aged cyborg scowled as he looked at the caller ID window, his keen mind immediately recognizing the number as belonging to one of the many spies SEELE had attempted to embed into NERV.

Ikari had found them immediately and shifted them to positions where they wouldn't get the chance to see any delicate information and thus be useful to SEELE. Only Kaji had avoided this fate so far, and Keel suspected that that man had his own agenda.

"What is it?" Keel said without preamble as he answered the phone.

"Sir, this is Agent Yoshimora," came the voice from the other end of the line. "I have something to report."

"Get on with it, then," Keel said.

"As you may know, sir, Ikari has given me the duty of guarding his home," Yoshimora began.

Keel nodded slightly; several of the spies SEELE had sent had ended up staring uselessly at the outside of Ikari's home, and it was exceedingly unusual for any of them to have anything remotely useful to report to him.

"And?" he asked.

"There was some kind of…strange incident last night," Yoshimora said.

"Explain," Keel demanded, intrigued.

"Well, at approximately midnight, every single security guard just passed out," he said. "When we woke up in the morning, there was no sign of a struggle, and Ikari acted like nothing happened. He was late departing for NERV headquarters, however."

Keel's frown deepened as several possibilities ran through his mind, none of them good.

"Sir?" Yoshimora asked.

"There's a private clinic in Tokyo-3 that is owned by one of my colleagues," he said. "I want you to gather the other men on your detail who work for SEELE and go there to get a drug test, as soon as you can without arousing suspicion. I want to know why all of you passed out."

"Yes, sir," Yoshimora said, hanging up the phone.

* * *

Gendo's luck continued to hold when he arrived at NERV headquarters. Practically the instant he emerged from the back of the car, an older man in a brown uniform approached him.

"Finally," the old man said. "With how late you are, I was starting to worry that something had happened."

"I was merely delayed," Gendo said, subtly studying the other man's rank insignia.

The bearded man gestured slightly, and the older man began to walk. Gendo followed, but he tried to make it appear as though he knew where he was going and wasn't following at all.

Eventually, they arrived at a huge office, which contained little more than a desk at the far end of the room. Gendo's keen mind immediately began analyzing it; the great amount of empty space, the dim light, and the strange symbols which had been etched onto the floor and were reflected on the mirrored ceiling. It was a place designed to set one's nerves on edge, to give an advantage to whomever could call the place familiar, and a disadvantage to those who could not.

He decided he liked it.

"There are a lot of issues we need to see to today," the old man started speaking. "Akagi's dummy system…"

"You're my second in command?" Gendo interrupted.

The old man blinked, clearly puzzled by the odd inquiry. "Unless you've decided to appoint someone new to the position," he said.

Gendo knew he had to do what did not come natural him soon, namely trust someone. Without someone to help him become acclimated to his own life, he would doubtlessly make some blunder he couldn't possibly recover from sooner or later. He only hoped that he was making the right decision by selecting his number two as the person to put his trust in.

"Listen to me," he said, "I realize that this may sound absurd, but this morning, I woke up with no memory whatsoever of who I am or what I do."

"What?" the old man asked, frowning. "You can't be serious? Is this some kind of bizarre loyalty test? I would think after all these years you wouldn't bother with such things."

Gendo shook his head. "This is no test," he said. "I don't even know your name. The only reason I know _my_ name is because I managed to find my ID card this morning."

"My god, you're serious, aren't you?" the old man asked, noticing a well controlled but detectable air of forlornness about the Commander.

"As cancer," Gendo replied grimly. "I need you to explain everything to me."

The old man just stared stupidly at Gendo for a long moment.

"Unless you see this as an opportunity to take my job," Gendo added in the darkly humorous tone of a man who isn't quite joking.

"No, oh no," the old professor said earnestly, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "I could never fend off SEELE. God knows they're not intimidated by me."

_As I suspected, I am a man with enemies,_ Gendo thought.

"Then I need to you to tell me everything you can about me and my life," Gendo said firmly, "so I can pretend that nothing happened and not show weakness to this SEELE."

"Of course," the old man replied. "It's just…this is such a shock…and there's so much information you need to know…"

"I suggest you start with telling me your name," Gendo said flatly. "The purpose of this organization might be a good next step after that."

"Right, well, I'm Kozo Fuyutski, your Vice Commander," the old man said.

"And?" Gendo prompted.

After a mere split second's hesitation, Fuyutski continued. "The special agency NERV exists to the defeat the giant monsters known as the Angels which seek to destroy humanity. Unbeknownst to the world, our backers, the SEELE council, intend to use the power of the Angels to obtain immortality by changing humanity at a fundamental level. However, that isn't our scenario. _We_ wish to avert Third Impact and allow the world to continue on as it is."

"I see," Gendo replied.

* * *

"Are you all right, Maya?" Ritsuko asked worriedly.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine, sempai!" Maya spoke up, snapping herself out of her sleepy haze.

Though, "fine" was something of an overstatement, the technician decided wearily. She was so exhausted from the many late nights of the recent past, especially the previous, exceedingly restless evening, that it was a constant struggle to keep herself from nodding off.

Of course, it didn't help that they were doing another diagnostic of the MAGI that day, this time in preparation for a data collection procedure for the dummy system, which meant more work than usual for NERV's technical staff.

"I thought you were faster than that," Ritsuko chided as lines of code sluggishly crawled by on Maya's computer monitor.

"Sorry, sempai," Maya said as she tried to better focus her mind on her task, "I've been having insomnia again."

Ritsuko shook her head and made a small, sympathetic noise. "Here, it'll probably be faster if I do it this way, anyway," she said, and began to start typing at her own keyboard.

Maya blinked as she watched the code begin to whiz across her screen at a much faster rate than she could ever have achieved, even if she was at 100 percent.

"Wow," she said softly to herself, "I still have a lot to learn."

A moment later, the door to the command center slid open with the a soft whooshing sound, and Maya found herself turning to see who had come in, half hoping and half fearing that it was the Commander.

She hadn't heard a single word about him all day, and she was bursting with curiosity (and not a little anxiety) about the immediate effects of what she'd done to him last night. Would his amnesia become public right away? Would he step down? And if so, who would replace him as NERV's commanding officer?

However, it wasn't the Commander that had come to see them but the Operations Director.

"So how's it going?" Misato asked as she strode in.

"Everything's on schedule," Ritsuko replied without turning away from her work to look at the purple haired woman. "We should be able to do today's test as planned."

"You're a wonder, Ritsuko!" Misato said, picking up a mug of coffee she happened to find resting atop a nearby control panel. "Juggling two big jobs at once and you still get them done on time!"

"That coffee's cold," Ritsuko commented, still not looking at Misato.

Maya suppressed the snicker that wanted to bubble out of her as the Ops Director spat the cold brew out in surprise and disgust.

With a deft keystroke, Ritsuko sent the MAGI into self-diagnostic mode, making the inefficient flesh creatures that worked to maintain the trio of supercomputers superfluous until it was done examining itself.

"All right, take a break, everyone," Ritsuko told her staff. "We'll reconvene at the Pribnow Box control room in fifteen minutes for the experiment with the dummy bodies."

Relieved, Maya got up, wanting to head to the lavatory to splash some cold water on her face and then find something that could pass for hot coffee.

However, she was quickly intercepted by the Operations Director.

"Maya, could I talk with you for a minute?" Misato asked.

The petite brunette's eyes widened slightly, her guilty conscious automatically making her think that this was about what she done to the Commander the previous night.

Then her weary brain somehow kicked itself into gear and told her to be reasonable. If NERV had somehow learned about what she'd done to the Commander, they would have sent a Section Two detail, not the pleasantly smiling Operations Director.

"Of course, Major," Maya replied.

The two stepped out of the command center together and found a fairly isolated spot in the hallways outside.

"I wanted to thank you, Maya," Misato said.

"For what?" the technician asked, feeling like she really _should_ know the reason for her superior's gratitude, but coming up blank.

"For helping Shinji, of course," Misato smirked.

"Oh, of course," Maya agreed, forcing a chuckle at how slow she was that day.

"Really, Maya, thanks," Misato said. "Shinji doesn't have as much time to study as other students, and I'm just plain useless when it comes to science."

_Isn't that the truth,_ Maya thought, suppressing a smirk as she thought of how the Operations Director's eyes would glaze over every time Dr. Akagi tried to explain something even remotely scientific to her.

"It was really nothing, Major," Maya assured her. "I was glad to do a little something for one of the Children. They bear so much more responsibility than people their age should…"

"Tell me about it," Misato sighed. "Well, I just wanted to say thanks. I'll let you enjoy your break, now."

Maya nodded and walked off, once more on course for the women's lavatory. When she entered, she was surprised to find Ritsuko there, staring at the bathroom's mirror and muttering to her reflection.

"Sempai?" Maya spoke up, causing Ritsuko to jump. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Maya," Ritsuko replied, giving the brunette a rueful smile before returning her attention to the mirror, "just starting to feel my age, I guess."

"You're still young, sempai," Maya said with a small smile.

Ritsuko chuckled mirthlessly. "I won't be for much longer," she commented, staring at her reflection.

"Huh?"

"You know the MAGI's true nature, right, Maya?" Ritsuko asked, abruptly changing the subject. "Who really wrote the source codes, and what parts of her each individual super computer represents?"

"Of course," Maya replied.

"Then you can understand why I'm interested in keeping the MAGI online and functioning properly," Ritsuko said.

"I…I guess," Maya replied uncertainly.

She frowned, wondering what it would be like, to have the computerized mind of her mother or another dead loved one nearby, and to be tasked with maintaining that computer.

Maya quickly decided she found the idea more disturbing than anything. Even she was readily willing to acknowledge that there were some things computers just couldn't do, and one of them was adequately substitute for deceased family members.

Yet she understood how difficult it would probably be to let go of the lingering essence of a person, no matter how pale a shadow it was.

"It's ironic," Ritsuko commented, jerking Maya from her thoughts. "When my mother was alive, I despised her, even if I may have respected her intellect and scientific achievements. And the MAGI…they were the source of my mother's fame, the tremendous achievement that I'd have to try and surpass somehow if I ever wanted to get out of her shadow. But when she died, well, everything just…changed. I didn't want it to, but I had no say over how my emotions reacted. I still don't."

Maya just stared at Ritsuko. She had never heard the blonde express so many of her private thoughts, or for that matter, appear so weak.

The technician felt a mixture of sympathy and dread well up within her, knowing that it had to be this weakness that allowed the Commander to force Ritsuko to follow even the most terrible of orders.

Then Ritsuko smiled ruefully, and suddenly she was once again the resolute and professional, if chronically stressed and overworked, woman that Maya knew and cared for.

"But I shouldn't burden you with my issues," Ritsuko said. "I'll see you at the Pribnow box."

"Right, see you," Maya replied quietly as Ritsuko walked out.

* * *

Not much later, the Children were going through an extensive decontamination cycle in preparation of the data gathering procedure. Maya was seated at one of the terminals in the Pribnow Box control room, trying to stay awake. The coffee she'd had during the break had somehow managed to make her jittery but not one bit more alert.

"Well, here I am, naked and sent through the wash seventeen times," Asuka observed unpleasantly as a trio of doors opened, allowing the now very clean pilots access to the corridor that would lead them to their test plugs.

Looking at a camera feed that showed her that corridor, Ritsuko frowned. A pair of barriers made of frosted glass had been erected inside it, dividing the hallway into three separate paths.

"Where did those come from?" she asked, pointing at the monitor.

"Oh, I got some of the maintenance people to put them up," Maya answered. "Don't worry, I made sure all the proper procedures were taken so that they're as sterile as the rest of that room."

"That was thoughtful of you, Maya," Misato said with a smile.

"Yes, thank you, Maya," Shinji added, the conversation apparently having been picked up by the microphone in the control room and broadcast to the pilots.

"Yeah, it's good to know that somebody around here isn't so preoccupied with quantum mechanics and EVA neurology that they forget all _common sense_," Asuka added.

Maya chuckled nervously, embarrassed by all the gratitude and rather wishing the Second Child hadn't taken the opportunity to deliver a not so subtle barb directed at her boss. "I just figured that _I'd_ be very embarrassed to have to walk naked down that hall like we're asking the pilots to do," she said modestly.

"Let's just get on with this," Ritsuko said. "Proceed to the test plugs, then we'll insert them into the dummy bodies."

The pilots obeyed, and soon enough, the experiment was underway. Maya shook her head slightly, even as she typed away at her keyboard, thinking of the dummy system…and the materials she knew were necessary to build it.

Everyone was settling in for a boring if labor intensive couple of hours when there was an ominous creaking sound from above them.

"Is there another water leak?" Ritsuko asked wearily.

"No," Maya answered after doing a quick check. "There's corrosion on the 87th protein wall."

"Will it interrupt the test?" Ritsuko asked.

"Not at present, no," Maya answered.

"Then let's continue," Ritsuko said. "Ikari will chew my ass off if it's delayed!"

There were a few muted chuckles from several of the technicians present, none of them at all doubting the Project-E chairperson's assertion. Then they all turned their attention back to their respective tasks.

And that was when the klaxons and Angel alarms started blaring.

"What's happening?!" the blond scientist demanded.

"A contamination alert has gone off for Sigma Unit!" Maya announced, her voice betraying more than a hint of fear.

The Pribnow box was inside Sigma Unit, after all.

But, on the plus side, Maya was now too alarmed to feel tired.

"The 87th protein wall has degraded," another technician announced. "Temperature is increasing rapidly."

"There's a problem in the number six pipeline," Maya added. "The corroded area's expanding rapidly!"

"Abort the experiment!" Akagi barked. "Disconnect the number six pipeline!"

"Hai!" Maya replied at once, practically punching the appropriate buttons.

They could hear the heavy machinery around them working to isolate the contaminated area. Everyone looked anxiously at Maya, wanting to know whether it had worked.

"Contamination is still spreading!" Maya exclaimed. "It's moving from wall to wall!"

"Ready the polysome," Ritsuko commanded. "Set the lasers at maximum. Fire as soon as the contaminant reaches here."

"Hai."

Several small doors inside the Pribnow opened, allowed robots that looked almost like miniature VTOLs to enter. The swarm of machines swam over to where the corrosion was likely to first appear and waited, looking as predatory as a faceless robot possibly could.

Then there was nothing to do but wait.

"It's coming," Maya said as she anxiously stared at her screen.

A scream suddenly split the tense silence in the control room, as if the universe itself had picked up on Maya's frame of mind. The technician started.

"Rei," Ritsuko breathed.

"The First Child's simulation body is moving by itself!" Maya exclaimed.

"Impossible!" Ritsuko said.

But, impossible or not, it was happening. Rei's dummy body, which was bolted to the wall like both the others, looked like it was trying to pull itself free. Fortunately, the thick bolts holding it had been drilled into several of the very vertebrae of the body, and it failed to liberate itself from its restraints. Giving up, it lifted one arm and reached out toward the control room.

Maya smashed the thin layer of glass in front of a large switch marked "forced shutdown" and pulled it. Small but powerful explosive charges located in the dummy body's elbow exploded, blowing the headless beast's forearm off and stopping its assault before it could begin.

"What about Rei?" Misato asked.

"She's alive," Maya replied.

"Eject all the plugs!" Ritsuko commanded. "Fire the lasers! Now!"

"Hai!"

A series of small rockets in each plug flared, sending the metal containers rocketing out of the dummy bodies and upwards toward the ceiling. A large door opened up to allow them to escape and the plugs had soon journeyed out of the base, heading to the safety of the Geofront floor.

Beams of deadly red light shot out from the weapon barrels of the polysomes, striking the rogue simulation body. For a few seconds, no one had any idea what was happening as the water bubbled furiously and hid any effect the lasers might be having.

Then the bubbles cleared up just enough for Maya to spot a cluster of hexagonal shields of light protecting the dummy body from the lasers.

"Impossible! It's an AT field!" Maya exclaimed, just as some red, luminescent substance began to grow all over the dummy bodies like an out of control fungus.

"The pattern's blue! It's an Angel!" another technician said grimly.

"We have to isolate the box!" Misato announced. "All personnel, evacuate!"

The various technicians in the room didn't need to be told twice and quickly got up from their chairs and fled toward the exit. Ritsuko was another matter, however. The blonde just stared darkly at the Angel, even as the glass that separated the control room from the Pribnow box began to crack, tiny jets of water starting to spurt in.

"Sempai!" Maya said. "We have to go!"

Ritsuko didn't say anything, but she did begin running, and the two just managed to escape and shut the door behind them just before the window shattered and allowed an avalanche of water to come cascading in.

* * *

Over an hour and a failed attempt to kill the Eleventh Angel with ozone later, the senior staff of NERV stood around a table in the command center, observing images and readouts about the Angel on the monitor that was part of the tabletop.

Any way one looked at it, their situation was grim. Not only had the Angel evolved to be able to thrive off of what they'd tried to kill it with it, but it had transformed itself into what was essentially a living computer that could hack and code faster than any human could ever hope to. The Angel had immediately used its incredible new abilities to invade the MAGI. Melchior, which had quickly been completely taken over. The Angel had then moved onto Balthasar, but some fast thinking on Ritsuko's part had managed to buy NERV some time.

And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, the Angel had already tried to initiate the base's self-destruct sequence. Casper and Balthasar had overridden Melchior, but if the Angel gained complete control of the triumvirate of computers, it was certain that they were doomed.

Strangely, as the infection had been spreading through the base, the Vice Commander had ordered the EVA's be launched in order to get them away from the Angel—and Unit One had been given priority.

Maya had no idea what made the test type special, and it bothered her. However, she supposed she had fewer mysteries to ponder than most everyone else.

At least _she_ knew why the Commander wasn't present, though she had no idea where he was. Hell, she had no idea if he'd somehow learned enough to call in sick, had just never left his home, or was somehow stumbling through his life with a measure of success for the moment.

"…I recommend the physical destruction of the MAGI," Misato's words pulled Maya from her thoughts.

"Destroying the MAGI would mean abandoning headquarters!" Ritsuko protested.

_Oh, sempai,_ Maya thought sympathetically, knowing the real reason why her boss was so adamant about preserving the MAGI.

"Having to abandon headquarters is better than letting an Angel take over," Misato countered.

"You don't know what abandoning headquarters will do!" Ritsuko snapped, becoming noticeably more agitated.

"Why are you taking this so personally?" Misato demanded.

Ritsuko didn't answer. Instead, she wordlessly held Misato's glare for a long, tense moment before turning to address the Vice Commander. "I believe I know a way to destroy the Angel without having to sacrifice headquarters."

"How so?" Fuyutski asked.

"This Angel has shown the capability to evolve rapidly," Ritsuko said. "I believe that we can guide its evolution toward self-destruction."

"But how, sempai?" Maya asked. "Organisms evolve for the purpose of being able to _survive_ in their environment. How can we make the Angel evolve toward death?"

Ritsuko gave her underling a small smirk. "Why, Maya, I'm surprised at you. I thought you of all people would figure out what I have planned," she said. "The Angel has taken on the form of a computer in order to be able to hack into the MAGI, but that means…"

"That we can hack into _it_ and reprogram it, guiding its evolution however we want," Maya finished, amazed at Ritsuko's brilliance.

"But to actually do that, we'd need to lower the firewalls separating Casper from the Angel," Makoto put in. "And the Angel will surely try to take Casper over the minute we do."

"So it all depends on which is faster: Casper or the Angel. Is that correct?" Fuyutski asked.

"Yes, sir," Ritsuko confirmed.

"Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I suppose," Fuyutski commented softly, then, with a small, wry smile added, "Besides, we've beaten worse odds in the past."

Everyone thought back to the Tenth Angel and grimaced slightly at the memory.

"Very well, Dr. Akagi, you have permission to proceed with this plan," Fuyutski said.

"Thank you, sir," Ritsuko said, then turned to Maya. "You'd better get some tools. We've got quite a job ahead of us."

"Yes, ma'am," Maya agreed at once, quickly moving to do as she was asked…but not before she had a quick word with someone from Tech Division Four.

* * *

Out on the Geofront floor lay three plugs, each one containing a miserable and naked EVA pilot. Asuka was shouting loudly, as though the sheer force of her indignation and anger could somehow make her voice carry all the way to the NERV pyramid. Shinji was silent but the portrait of embarrassed discomfort, while Rei was silent and the portrait of patient stoicism.

Then a trio of people, one man and two women, came trudging through the wilderness, their arms loaded with towels and clothing. Of this group, the man went up to the Third Child's plug and pulled the lever to open it.

Startled, Shinji instinctively tried to cross his legs, but his command chair wasn't really conducive to that.

"Get out of there, kid," the tech said, disgruntled at having been forced to come all the way out here on the words of Akagi's second.

Shinji did so, quickly using the offered towel to dry himself off, then getting dressed. He was aware of the sound of the other two plugs being opened, and he kept his eyes on the ground as the pair of female techs helped the other pilots out.

"So what happens now?" Shinji asked.

"Now you go home," the man said. "There's nothing you can do about this Angel, so staying on base would just endanger you unnecessarily."

"I see," Shinji replied slowly, suddenly filled with trepidation on behalf of the people he knew who were doubtlessly still within the pyramid. "Well, thank you for coming to get us."

"Thank Ibuki," the man grumbled. "She was the one who told us to come out here to get you."

Shinji blinked, surprised. He would've expected Misato to be the one to remember that they were stranded in the middle of the Geofront floor with no clothes, but he guessed that she had her hands full with an Angel inside headquarters. Then again, Maya probably did, too.

_I wonder why I haven't noticed how nice she is until now,_ he mused, smiling slightly as he began to head away from the area where their plugs had landed.

* * *

Maya was in hell.

Ritsuko and Misato were currently cloistered away within the confines of MAGI Casper's innards, which they had risen out of the floor for the occasion. There, Ritsuko was working on gaining access to the computerized Angel's systems with Misato's assistance.

Maya's job was to actually write the program that would cause the Angel to destroy itself. Which, on the face of it, seemed like a pretty simple task; "die" was about as straightforward as a command as one could ask for, after all. However, several factors came into play to made things difficult.

When the Angel had arranged its form into circuitry, it had mimicked human computers so as to be better able to invade them (as a student of computer science, Maya knew that this was essential; it was nearly impossible to write a functional computer virus for a PC on a Mac, and vice versa, for instance. So if the Angel had taken on the form of a system that was alien to humanity, it wouldn't have been able to invade their systems at all). However, there were still some things about the Angel's system that were unique from any operating system ever created by humanity. And since they couldn't risk disabling the firewalls yet, Maya's ability to figure out those small but important differences so she could program accordingly was badly curtailed.

The worst part of it was, she knew she could do it if she had brought her A-game with her to work, but that certainly wasn't the case. No amount of coffee could revive her right then; she repeatedly found herself spacing out as she worked, and the lines of code often seemed to swim across her vision. More than once she even caught herself starting to nod off.

_I'm not going to be ready on time,_ she thought, her fear pushing her into a brief surge of typing.

…much of which she had to go back and delete because of all the typos that had crept in.

_Of course, there _is_ a way to do this easily. No one will notice…_

She shook her head at the treasonous thought, the idea of using magic in her programming repelling her. In the techie's mind, computers were the antithesis of magic; they represented her present and future the way mystic forces represented her past and unwanted heritage, and she'd be damned if she "corrupted" them with her innate powers.

_I can do this myself,_ she thought resolutely. _This was what I was meant to do, and I don't need magic to help me do it, damn it!_

No sooner had she made this pledge to herself than did the alarms and klaxons start going off all over again. Red warning lights came on, filling the entire command center with an ominous, bloody glow.

_No! Not yet!_ Maya thought, her fingers becoming a blur as her body released a wave of adrenaline into her system that momentarily swept away her weariness.

"It's taken over Balthasar!" Makoto shouted.

"Artificial intelligence has proposed self-destruction," the calm, digitized voice of the MAGI themselves announced. "Self destruction will commence in thirty seconds if all three MAGI units unanimously approve."

"The Angel's invading Casper!" Aoba shouted.

"Twenty seconds until self destruct," the MAGI chimed in.

"Casper will be taken over in eighteen seconds!" Aoba added.

Maya was only tangentially aware of all these announcements, not really paying attention to them beyond noting the new time limits they imposed on her. In her heart of hearts, she knew that she didn't have the time to complete her task—not without using magic to "cheat" anyway—but she still intended to try. Her fingers blurred over her keyboard.

"Ten…nine…eight…" the MAGI began to countdown.

"I can make it!" Ritsuko called from inside of Casper. "Maya, what about you?"

"I can do it, sempai!" Maya replied immediately, almost on reflex.

If she was wrong, well, they wouldn't live long enough for anyone to call her a liar.

_Come on, come on, type faster!_ She urged herself.

For one naïve moment, Maya thought she might actually be able to do it, that she could save the day and her pride as well.

Then reality came crashing down on her, and she realized that while she _might_ be able to finish writing the program, there was no way that she'd have the time to go back and fix the errors she'd doubtlessly made in her haste and exhaustion.

"Seven…six…five…"

For a moment, a very brief moment, Maya stubbornly considering not using her powers despite her failure. If NERV headquarters was to explode, a lot of the important pieces of the evil schemes she was trying to avert would go up with it…

_What the hell are you thinking?!_ Part of her mind demanded. _You can't let people die for your pride!_

With a soft sigh, Maya waggled her fingers a little (she hated using magic without a wand, but at times like this, there was just no way around it), and whispered, "Etelpmoc eht margorp."

The small part of her that believed that magic wouldn't work on a computer for some reason was immediately proven wrong as several lines were added to the code she'd written and the errors she hadn't noticed before were corrected.

"Now, Maya!" Ritsuko shouted.

"Right!" Maya exclaimed, stabbing the enter key while her boss did the same on her own laptop.

A long, tense moment of silence followed, as everyone held their breath, wondering if Dr. Akagi and her protégé had been fast enough, wondering if they would taste triumph or N2 flame.

Then, finally, the MAGI spoke.

"Self destruct has been cancelled by the artificial intelligence. Systems returning to normal modes."

The command center broke into loud cheers, but Maya just released a sigh of relief and allowed her whole body to slump wearily. They'd survived another day, beaten another Angel, and she hadn't screwed up.

And all it cost her was another little piece of her pride.

* * *

Not much later, Maya was stepping into one of the base's elevators, heading home. She intended to go straight to bed and call the longest day of her life over as soon she got there, but for now, her mind was buzzing unpleasantly.

What the hell had happened to her? Lately, it seemed like all she was doing was agonizing how she was losing her years old argument with her father, an argument she'd rarely even thought about until recently. Before the MAGI had decided to thrust the world's biggest problem onto her shoulders, she'd just lived her busy but fulfilling life, happy with her job as a computer technician. If she ever thought of her father and their old fight, she'd been content in the knowledge that she was proving him wrong just by, well, living her busy but fulfilling life as a computer technician.

But lately she'd been feeling like she was proving him _right_.

Maya had never considered herself a proud person, and nobody who knew her would have described her as such. Indeed, the whole science versus magic debate with her father was about the only time where she'd proclaimed she was right and had refused to budge, come hell or high water. Was it so wrong to have _one_ thing, one ideal, that you were as stubborn as a mule about?

_Only when people could die if you keep clutching onto it,_ she thought dourly.

The elevator suddenly dinged, and the doors slid open, admitting the Ops Director. Misato stepped inside, looking about as tired as Maya felt.

"Hello, Maya," she greeted. "Going home?"

"Yes," Maya replied, suddenly finding herself overtaken by a yawn. "Feels like I've been here for a week straight."

"I know the feeling," Misato sympathized. "By the way, I wanted to thank you for sending someone out to get the Children."

"Oh, it was nothing, really," she said.

"Nonsense," Misato said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "After we beat the Angel, I suddenly realized that I'd forgotten all about them. I felt so terrible until I found that you'd already taken care of it. Lately, you seem to be doing a better job of taking care of them than I do." She added guiltily.

"I wouldn't say that, Major," Maya replied at once. "I've really just been doing little things for them. I didn't take any of them in."

"Little things can be important," Misato said.

"Yes, but as the Director of Operations, it's your job to look at the big picture," Maya said. "I'm an assistant. It's my job to worry about the details, and I don't mind doing so off the clock sometimes, not for the Children."

"Thanks, Maya," Misato replied with a small smile. "You're class-A."

The elevator dinged again and the doors slid open once more, this time revealing the parking deck. Both women stepped out.

"See you tomorrow, Maya," Misato said.

"Right, good night, Major," Maya replied, and the two parted ways.

* * *

After that, both technician and Operations Director returned home, temporarily laying down all their burdens and simply resting. But there was no rest for the wicked. Hours after the Eleventh Angel was repelled, the Commanders met with the SEELE council in an emergency session.

Had Gendo been in possession of his memories, he would have ordered that NERV pretend that an Angel was _not_ attacking them, covering up their failure to prevent the incursion. However, he had not done so, and thus, he had to face SEELE far sooner than he would have liked.

"Greetings, gentlemen," Gendo said as the twelve monoliths came into view, his tone straddling sardonic and polite in a way that was apparently innate to him, much to Fuyutski's relief.

"This is not a casual meeting, Ikari," SEELE-06 warned. "Do not treat it as such."

"The intrusion of an Angel into Central Dogma was completely unacceptable," SEELE-02 agreed.

"Explain yourself," SEELE-09 demanded.

"The Angel was allowed to sneak into the base prior to its attack due to human error," Gendo replied, for once not tenting his fingers before his face but folding his hands on the table. "Every member of NERV Central was exhausted following the attack of the Third Angel. There was more work than our funding allows for workers." He added, subtly trying to shift the blame to SEELE.

"You allowed your people to become careless," SEELE-11 accused.

"Human endurance has its limits," Gendo replied flatly. "Even I can only push people beyond them so far before mistakes are made. This situation was unavoidable."

"That an Angel would get into Central Dogma so early on was _not_ predicted in the scrolls," SEELE-02 spoke up.

Gendo paused, his eyes involuntarily flicking over to Fuyutski, even though he knew the older man couldn't help him now. The Vice Commander had hurriedly briefed him on SEELE and what he'd be expected to say when they'd learned that the council had wanted to meet with them, but there had not been time for him to convey everything to Gendo. The scrolls were something that Fuyutski had not mentioned.

"Even the knowledge in the scrolls have limits," Gendo finally spoke, giving the safest answer he could come up with.

"So, that's it, then?" SEELE-12 asked.

"Yes. I did the best I could with the resources available," Gendo replied, almost nonchalantly. "However, if it placates the council, know that I have already scheduled a series of inspections on the work done immediately after the Third Angel's attack."

"Prudent, though it is unlikely another Angel will attempt to do something similar," SEELE-01 spoke up. "The council must now confer among itself. Your presence was, as always, appreciated."

With that, Gendo and Fuyutski vanished from the virtual meeting chambers.

"Well?" SEELE-01 demanded.

"I must admit, something did seem…off about him today," SEELE-03 conceded.

"He was nervous," SEELE-07 put in. "Usually, I can't read that man at all, but tonight he was nervous."

"What did the tests say, Chairman?" asked SEELE-10.

"Ikari's home security guards had no detectable trace of toxins or sedatives in their blood," SEELE-01 answered. "Last night, someone simultaneously incapacitated all of Ikari's guards without the aid of drugs, walked into his home as though his security system did not exist, and today, he's behaving strangely."

A pregnant silence hung in the air.

"Gentlemen, I think we have reason to suspect that someone wielding supernatural forces is interfering with NERV affairs, and thus the scenario," SEELE-01 said.

"What do you propose we do?" SEELE-02 asked.

"It would seem prudent to dispatch one of our very special agents to investigate this situation," SEELE-01, the barest trace of amusement in his voice, "and rectify it, if our suspicions are correct."

SEELE was not a new organization. While it had not always existed in its current form, its origins were ancient. The members of the shadowy cabal knew of magic, and two decades ago, they would have been able to pick and choose among over a dozen agents possessing magical powers.

However, Second Impact had brought about the end of Ninth Age of Magic, and many of SEELE's supernatural operatives had not survived the transition to the Tenth. As it stood, their options for the mission Keel was proposing were very few.

"Who do we send, then?" SEELE-08 asked. "The man, or the boy?"

"The boy is reckless and impulsive," SEELE-04 spoke up.

"But the man has masters besides us," SEELE-06 said. "The wisdom of allowing him to get close to or even within NERV is…questionable."

"Indeed, the boy may act on whim at times, but he will obey us," SEELE-03 agreed. "He has no choice but to obey us."

"It's settled, then," SEELE-01 said. "I will have someone contact the boy and start making the arrangements tonight."

* * *

_Manteo, North Carolina_

A teenage boy groaned as an incessant ringing disturbed his sleep, throwing aside the covers of his bed as he sat up. However, as it turned out, there was no need for him to get out of bed. A brown cat hopped up onto his bed, a cellular phone held in its mouth.

"Well done, Teekl," the boy said, scratching the cat behind the ears as he claimed the phone.

Taking a moment to glare the infernal (if ingenious device), he managed to find the proper button to answer the call and pushed it.

"Do you know what bloody time it is?!" he demanded.

"I don't know what time it is there, and I don't care," came the brusque reply. "You're going to be traveling to Japan tomorrow, so get packed. You know what will happen if you refuse, Bleak."

The caller hung up, and the boy scowled at the phone. "How vulgar," he muttered to himself before discarding the phone and turning his attention back to his cat, becoming cheerful. "Well, Teekl, it looks like we're bound for a new land. Hopefully it will be fun."

The cat meowed and licked his hand.

"Mm, true, I doubt that this Japan place has ever encountered anyone like Klarion the Witch Boy before."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** The level of angst in this chapter bugged me, not least of all because I once chided Orionpax09 for how joyless a time Maya was having of it in her SOE1 fic. However, there didn't seem to be much of a way around it without having Maya seem OOC. I'll have to make the next chapter more cheerful.

Anyway, onto other matters. After years of being stuck between a rock and a hard place, Fuyutski's finally found the third option. Next chapter I'll be elaborating on what went through his mind at the moment of decision, and how he intends to make this work.

And a new challenger approaches! Klarion's pretty obscure; he's been around in the DC universe, but not terribly much so far as I'm aware, with his two most noteworthy appearances having been his part in the Seven Soldiers "mega-series" and serving as the villain in an episode of The New Batman Adventures. In the latter, he was pretty much just a spoiled brat with _way_ too much power, while in the comics he's a more complex character who can be hero or villain depending upon the situation. I'll probably end up splitting the difference here.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omake

Still More Than One Way to Kill a Gendo

Commander Ikari had not been having the best of weeks. Or perhaps it was just one very bad day. He couldn't really tell; things were starting to blur together, and he wasn't sure how good his grip on reality was any longer.

It always went the same way, with a few variations. There would be a NERV talent show, and Lieutenant Ibuki would be performing a magic act. She'd volunteer him to be her assistant for a trick.

This was where the variations in the pattern came in. The trick was always different, but the end result was always the same: he died. Whether it was by being stabbed, turned into a dove and then crushed beneath a heavy prop, levitated high in the air by unseen forces and then dropped, or suffocated by an avalanche of white rabbits, he _always_ died.

And then he woke up in his bed, and the cycle began again.

No matter how hard he tried to keep it from happening.

Eventually, he'd given up trying.

"Can I have a volunteer from the audience?" Ibuki called.

Gendo raised his hand.

"Commander! How about you?" Ibuki said immediately.

With a sigh, he got up and made his way to the stage.

"For my next trick…I am going to cut my assistant in half!" Maya announced, holding up a metal saw.

Gendo just sighed and got into the wooden box she indicated.


	5. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Four: **Of Conspiracies and Little Flying Things

Kozo Fuyutski was not, unlike his former student Gendo Ikari, a schemer by nature. Though he had been involved in complex and nefarious conspiracies for a respectable fraction of his adult life, that was only because he had been more or less forcibly conscripted into them, not because he'd ever actually _wanted_ any part in them. Additionally, he himself had never actually run a conspiracy, having always been the number two man, at most.

As such, he was discovering that he had not been entirely prepared for the amount of legwork necessary to keep his deception of Gendo Ikari from immediately falling apart. The overwhelmed academic had actually resorted to making himself a to-do list, and he was just getting to one of the most essential items on said list.

"Dr. Akagi," he said, knocking on the doorframe of the scientist's office, "I need a word with you. In private." He added, his gaze darting over to Ritsuko's personal assistant, who had been discussing something with the Project-E chairperson.

"Of course, sir," Maya replied, immediately getting the hint. The brunette picked up some papers and turned to her mentor. "I'll just take these down to Technical Division Four."

"Thank you, Maya," Ritsuko said absently as the assistant vacated the office.

Fuyutski closed the door after the petite woman as she left, then reached into his pocket and removed a small remote control. He pointed it at one of the corners of the room and pressed a button.

"What are you doing?" Ritsuko asked with a small frown.

"Switching off the security surveillance in this room," Fuyutski answered. "As I said, Doctor, I wanted to speak with you in private."

Ritsuko blinked. "You can do that? You have a remote control for that?"

Fuyutski couldn't prevent a sardonic little smirk from appearing on his face. "There are still a few things about this place you don't know about, Doctor."

_Good grief,_ he thought, his smirk suddenly twisting into a grimace. _I'm already starting to sound like Gendo._

Akagi apparently didn't appreciate his little stab at humor any more than he did. "I see," she said coolly. "Well, what did you need to speak to me about, Vice Commander?"

There was no subtle way to explain what he needed to convey, so Fuyutski opted for the blunt approach. "For reasons that yet remain unclear, the Commander has amnesia. When he came to me asking to explain things to him, I told him that our goal was to avert Third Impact. I'll need your cooperation with this if he's going to continue believing that."

Akagi gaped silently at him for a full twenty-five seconds. Fuyutski timed it with the clock on the wall behind her.

"You can't be serious," she said as the power of speech gradually returned to her, shaking her head in denial. "You're not serious."

"I _am_ serious," Fuyutski replied. "Gendo Ikari currently knows nothing about the plans he truly had for the end of this war, because I told him something different."

"Good God, _why_?" Ritsuko hissed. "Do you have any idea what he'll do if he finds out you're deceiving him? If he regains his memory?"

"My imagination has been working overtime on the issue," Fuyutski answered grimly.

"Then why did you do it?" Akagi demanded. "It's insane!"

"I only had seconds to stop and consider the idea when Ikari asked me to fill him in on everything," Fuyutski said defensively. "Any longer and he would have suspected I was lying no matter what I told him. And, god damn it, I spent years looking for a way to end all the terrible schemes after I was pulled into them. I'd given up hope of ever finding one a long time ago, and then one was offered up on a silver platter. So I took it."

Akagi squeezed her eyes shut and massaged her temples. "Do you realize how foolhardy that was?"

_I think I'm beginning to,_ Fuyutski thought grimly.

"Do you _want_ the world as we know it to end?" the Vice Commander countered.

"No, of course not," Akagi replied, though not with as much enthusiasm as Fuyutski would have hoped.

"Well, as I see it, this is our best—and perhaps our _only_—chance at preventing some form of Third Impact from happening," Fuyutski said. "But, as I said, I need your cooperation. I knew there was no way you could be fooled into thinking there was nothing off about Ikari. So you get to choose: do you go along with this, or do you tell Ikari that I betrayed him? My life is in your hands, Doctor…Ritsuko. _Everyone's_ life is in your hands."

The bottle blonde scowled at him. "You make it sound so simple," she said, "but it's not. There must be hundreds of ways this plan of yours can go south. What about Rei, for instance? Have you even considered Rei?"

"I've already gotten the First Child to agree not to tell Ikari about what we're doing unless he specifically asks her, which was the best I could do," Fuyutski answered.

Akagi's eyes widened. "How in god's name did you get her cooperation?"

"I pointed out that Ikari—both Ikari's, actually—would cease to exist in any recognizable form if Third Impact were to occur," Fuyutski said. "Offering to move her to a different apartment didn't hurt, either."

"You managed to _bribe_ Rei?" Akagi asked, incredulous.

"I think that Rei's becoming…reticent as the time for the climax of Ikari's old scenario draws near, along with its promise of oblivion for her," Fuyutski replied with a shrug. "In any event, _why_ she agreed to go along is irrelevant. What's important is that she _did._ Will you?"

Akagi sighed heavily and ran her hands through her dyed locks. "Do you understand what you're asking of me?"

"Yes," Fuyutski asked, his tone softening. "And if I had realized at the time that more than just one dried up old man would have to take these risks, I might have told Ikari the truth. But, well, I can't turn back now. I'm stuck trying to save the world." He added with a small, dry chuckle.

Akagi sighed. "All right. I'll go along with this insane plan. Just don't say I didn't warn you when it blows up in our faces."

Fuyutski smiled. "Thank you," he said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, there's still a great deal more I have to do."

"Wait," Akagi said. "What am I supposed to do about…my relationship with Gendo?"

Fuyutski winced slightly. _That_ had always been an uncomfortable subject, and one they'd tended to studiously ignore. He'd never really approved of the relationship between the Commander and the Project-E Chairperson, and she knew that, but he'd always kept his nose out of the matter.

He decided it wasn't time to change that policy. "That's your decision," he said. "Tell him that he makes a habit of bringing you a dozen roses every Tuesday, or act like there's never been anything between the two of you at all. Just don't tell him about his old scenario, and I'll be satisfied."

"All right," Akagi agreed, a pensive look on her face.

"Now, I really must be going," Fuyutski said. "There's a lot of data I have to doctor in Ikari's personal files before he manages to get back into them somehow."

"Of course," Akagi said. "Go."

* * *

Hearing the conversation between the two finishing up, Maya quickly took her ear away from the door to Ritsuko's office and ran down the hallway as fast as she dared, just managing to turn a corner before the Vice Commander emerged.

She had missed much of the exchange, thanks to having to actually go to Tech Division Four to drop off the papers she'd taken; Ritsuko would have become suspicious if it had taken her too long. However, she'd rushed there and back and had managed to eavesdrop on a decent portion of the conversation.

The tech wasn't quite sure what exactly the Vice Commander's plans were about, but she had a pretty good idea, and she could barely dare to believe that things were turning out so well after she had mind wiped Gendo Ikari.

It had elated her to think that the Vice Commander had taken on the task of saving the world; Maya felt as though an immense weight had just been lifted off her shoulders. She would continue to work with Shinji, and she'd try and keep an eye on things, but if all went well, she might never need to don that stupid costume and assume the identity of Zatanna again!

However, after hearing Ritsuko and Fuyutski discuss the scientist's "relationship" with the Commander, Maya had had trouble thinking about anything else, feeling shocked at the discovery.

She supposed that it made a kind of sense. Ever since her tarot reading had revealed that Ritsuko was in on the Commander's scheme, Maya had wondered why, because so far as she could tell, the Project-E Chairperson wouldn't actually get any benefit from it. Now, though, it looked as though the pieces were falling into place. But still…

_I had no idea,_ she thought.

It was no real surprise that Gendo and Ritsuko had kept such an affair secret; such a relationship between higher-ups in a place like NERV would be considered, at the absolute best, foolhardy in the extreme, not to mention a poor example for the workers and soldiers who were expected to behave with absolute professionalism whenever they were on duty. And the two of them were both people who rarely showed much emotion, in a country where public displays of affection were genuinely frowned upon.

_But I had __**no**__ idea,_ Maya thought.

She was frequently around when Ritsuko reported to the Commander, and she had never seen the tiniest sign that the two had any kind of relationship outside of work whatsoever. No tender looks. No smiles. No little touches. Hell, the Commander had clearly never even felt any inclination to hold back on his criticism when he believed that Ritsuko wasn't doing a perfect job as the Project-E Chairperson.

If not even one tiny _glimmer_ of affection had ever slipped out between the two, it must have been a cold relationship that they'd shared indeed.

The idea of her beloved mentor subjecting herself to such a loveless affair made Maya feel sick.

It also made her question, yet again, how well she really knew Ritsuko Akagi. The brilliant, talented scientist had always struck her as a strong woman, one who would never allow herself to be dominated by a man, especially not one who didn't show her much warmth in exchange. And yet she'd been helping Gendo Ikari to destroy the world.

_Well, now she doesn't ever have to see him romantically again,_ Maya thought, realizing that her decision to mind wipe the Commander was proving to have positive effects unrelated to his horrible schemes.

The thought that she had freed Ritsuko from an undesirable relationship with the Commander pleased her, and she was able to return to the bottle blonde's office with a small smile on her face.

* * *

Being suddenly summoned by the Committee wasn't a good sign at the best of times, Fuyutski thought some time later, and these were not exactly the best of times. The only thing that gave him any comfort was that it _was_ the Committee he was facing, and not SEELE itself. That had to be a good sign, or at least, he told himself as much as he faced the five members of SEELE who served as the cabal's public face.

"Vice Commander Fuyutski," the Russian representative said, "we had requested to speak with Commander Ikari."

"Sadly, the Commander is occupied and cannot get here in time for this meeting," Fuyutski lied.

The truth of the matter was that he wanted to keep Gendo away from the old men for as long as possible, lest they realize something was seriously wrong with him, assuming they hadn't already. Last time, that hadn't been possible; SEELE would have taken some kind of drastic action if Gendo had refused to meet with them and defend himself on the issue of allowing the Eleventh Angel into the base.

This time, however, Fuyutski felt he could get away with lying to the Committee about Ikari's whereabouts and availability. Which was not to say that Fuyutski thought they didn't realize he was deceiving them; if Gendo had ventured very far from Tokyo-3, they would have known. Indeed, the old men probably suspected that the Commander was currently at the NERV base, which he was.

But they didn't call him on his lie. They'd have to openly admit that they kept obsessively close tabs of Gendo's movements to do that, and in any case, that wasn't the way these meetings had ever worked.

_With any luck, they'll think Ikari's just snubbing them to make a point or something,_ Fuyutski thought.

"It is regrettable that he could not be here to hear the good news," the French member said.

"Good news?" Fuyutski echoed, his sense of anxiety rising.

"Indeed," the American member said. "The Marduk Institute has located another pilot candidate."

Of course, everyone present knew that Marduk didn't exist, but as he was dealing with the Committee rather than SEELE, that meant the minutes of the meeting were public record. An even greater number of lies and facades were therefore required.

"Indeed? Who is he?" Fuyutski asked, not letting his guard down.

"An American boy by the name of Klarion Bleak," the English representative said. "Don't worry, Fuyutski, he already knows Japanese."

"That is fortuitous," the Vice Commander said, growing more and more suspicious of the situation by the second. "When is Mr. Bleak scheduled to arrive?"

Chairman Keel checked his wristwatch. "He should reach NERV headquarters in about twenty minutes from now," the ancient cyborg said. "I trust you'll schedule a series of sync tests for him as soon as possible."

"Why did you wait until now to inform NERV Central about this?" Fuyutski asked, momentarily breaking character and letting his annoyance show.

"Why, Vice Commander, we simply found the boy and sent him to you as soon as we could," the Russian replied, sounding surprised that Fuyutski was irritated about what they'd done. "Even if there is no Evangelion for him to pilot, NERV can use all the backup pilots Marduk can provide you with. We can't be too careful when it comes to defeating the Angels."

"Of course not," Fuyutski was forced to agree. "Thank you, for finding the new pilot candidate. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to prepare for his first sync tests."

"Of course," Chairman Keel said magnanimously.

The holographic avatars of the Committee winked out, leaving Fuyutski alone. The former professor let out a sigh once they were gone. This was harder than Ikari made it look.

He rose from his chair, his joints protesting as he did so, and headed for the door, taking out his cell phone as he went. He called Dr. Akagi and asked her to meet him as he made his way to the base's main entrance. The two encountered each other just as he was heading into an elevator.

"What's going on?" she demanded without preamble as they stepped into the car.

He could smell the pungent aroma of cigarettes on her breath far more strongly than usual. The woman must have been chain smoking in her office, probably because of all the stress and worrying. It made Fuyutski feel guilty, especially with what he was about to tell her.

"SEELE is sending us a new spy and telling us he's a pilot candidate," Fuyutski said. "I need you to schedule a series of sync tests for him to see which EVA he's most capable of piloting."

Akagi swore. "They're sending a new spy now? You know that there's only one reason why they'd send a new spy here now, don't you?"

He nodded. "They suspect something's amiss here."

"Even in my worst nightmares, I didn't expect this would all go to hell quite so soon," she said, then shook her head, took a deep breath, and seemed to collect herself. "I can rig the tests so he fails to sync with any of the Evangelions, then we'll have an excuse to get rid of him."

"No," Fuyutski said, shaking his head. "There will be hell to pay if we send the boy packing, I'm sure of that. Besides, knowing he's a spy gives us an advantage; we can try and control what he learns and thus control the information getting back to SEELE. We won't have that if we reject the boy and the old bastards send a less blatant operative in his place."

Akagi gave him a surprised—and grudgingly impressed—look.

"I spent over ten years playing sidekick to Gendo. Don't you think I'd pick up at least a little of this sort of crap in that time?" Fuyutski grumbled.

Akagi released a small snort at that. "Well, in any case, if you're finished telling me about how our little house of cards is starting to fall down, I guess I have to prep for some sync tests."

Fuyutski nodded, and the scientist got off at the next floor. The Vice Commander continued to ride the elevator down until he had reached the ground floor of the NERV pyramid, then continued his trek to the main entrance. Despite the sheer size of the base, the trip only took him ten minutes, but he still only barely made it in time to see the new pilot candidate arriving with a pair of large men in dark suits who were doubtlessly on SEELE's payroll.

Somehow he wasn't surprised that the Committee had lied to him about the boy's ETA.

"Thank you for escorting our new pilot," Fuyutski said to the anonymous men in black. "I can take it from here, gentlemen."

The two men traded a glance, then seemed to mentally shrug. They turned and walked off without a word.

"Greetings. You must be Vice Commander Fuyutski. I am Klarion Bleak, the new pilot candidate chosen by the Marduk Institute," the boy said in perfect but accented Japanese.

For the first time, Fuyutski truly looked at SEELE's new spy. The boy was strange, even by the standards held by NERV. He was a tall, thin child with a long face and intense, dark eyes. His ebony black hair stuck up in two places, making it look as though he had horns. An orange tabby cat sat perched atop his left shoulder.

More than all that, though, there was just something plain eerie about the boy that Fuyutski couldn't quite put his finger on.

Nevertheless, he gave Klarion what he hoped was a grandfatherly smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, young man," he said. "I'll be happy to give you a brief tour of headquarters, but I'm afraid that animals are not permitted within the base."

Klarion turned to look his cat in the eye. "Teekl, it seems like you can come with me no further," he said. "Run along now, and I'll get you when I leave."

The cat meowed and then jumped down and walked off into the grass, strangely obedient for a feline.

"He may be difficult to find later," Fuyutski warned. "The Geofront is enormous."

"He'll come back," Klarion smiled. "He always does."

Fuyutski somehow managed not to shiver.

* * *

"You seem to be in a good mood today, Maya," Makoto commented as the three top bridge technicians worked at their terminals.

"Do I?" the brunette responded.

It was a slow day at NERV so far, and though that could always change at the drop of a hat in their line of work, the employees of the organization were doing their best to take advantage of the lull while they could.

"Compared to recently, you seem like you're on cloud nine, Maya," Aoba chimed in.

Maya smiled. "Well, some…personal issues I've been dealing with seem to be clearing up," she said. "And I've been able to sleep much better because of it."

"Good, because you really looked like crap for a few days there," the long haired man said.

Maya rolled her eyes. "Always such a charmer, Shigeru."

Before Aoba could formulate any kind of response to that, the door to the command center opened with a quiet swishing sound and Dr. Akagi strode in. Makoto and Aoba immediately tried to look busy.

"Hello, sempai," Maya greeted the bottle blonde, feeling pleased with herself all over again for having 'saved' Ritsuko from her relationship with Gendo.

"Hello, Maya," Ritsuko replied. "I need you and Makoto to come with me to the test control room."

"Why are we heading there?" Makoto asked, even as he moved to comply. "The Children are all still in school, and they aren't scheduled for a sync test today, anyway."

"We have a new pilot," Ritsuko announced, which instantly got the attention of everyone on the command center. "Boy from America."

"And we're just hearing about it now?" Makoto asked, surprised.

Ritsuko shrugged. "The ways of bureaucrats have always been incomprehensible to the likes of eggheads such as ourselves," she said sagely. "Come on, we don't have a lot of time to set this up."

Maya and Makoto obediently followed Ritsuko to the testing control room, the brunette feeling trepidation rising within her. Having a new pilot arriving from out the blue wasn't normal; the technical crew had even known to expect Shinji, thanks to the Commander. Much as she would like to think it was a coincidence, she had a feeling that something might be up.

Nevertheless, once they arrived at the control room, she dutifully began helping to prepare for a series of abbreviated sync tests with all three EVA test plugs. They had barely finished when Vice Commander Fuyutski arrived with the pilot candidate in tow, the boy clad in one of Shinji's spare plug suits.

Maya was just barely able to stifle a gasp as he came into view, feeling a little tingle at the back of her mind that she hadn't felt in a very long time, and had never expected to feel while inside NERV.

The boy was _Homo Magi_.

_Oh god,_ she thought. _They know. SEELE knows I used magic, and they sent this boy to find me._

Maya had a small amulet that kept her from being sensed by other _Homo Magi_ like she had just sensed the boy, and she had worn it religiously ever since she'd left home. So long as she had the sense to just lay low, the boy shouldn't be able to ferret her out. However, she did _not_ like the idea that there was a SEELE operative in NERV, and that the person he was looking for was _her_.

"Maya!" Ritsuko's voice suddenly cut through her thoughts. "Are we ready to begin yet?"

"Oh, yes," Maya answered after a quick glance at her screen. "Sorry about that, sempai."

"Then let's proceed," Ritsuko said. "We'll begin by testing him for Unit Zero."

For over two hours, Maya's mind raced as they put Klarion through his paces in the three plugs. She kept wondering what, if anything, she should do about this new development.

She knew that so far as _Homo Magi_ went, the Ibuki's were powerful; if she was to confront Klarion as Zatanna, it was quite possible, probably even likely, that she would defeat him. However, she couldn't be certain, and she was reluctant to seek out a fight with Klarion if she could lose. The boy had doubtlessly been sent by SEELE, and she didn't think they'd send a magical weakling.

Would he sniff her out eventually? Could he, if she took all the precautions she knew?

It was with thoughts like these that Maya tortured herself for the duration of Klarion's tests, that damnable tingle at the back of her mind not letting her concentrate fully on anything else.

"The tests are concluded," Ritsuko announced finally.

"How did I do, Doctor?" Klarion asked, a distinctly sardonic tone in his voice.

"Your synchronization level with all three Evangelions is zero," Ritsuko answered.

"I see," Klarion said, not sounding very dismayed, or even surprised. "What's going to happen to me now?"

_Send him away, send him away, send him away,_ Maya silently chanted.

"That's up to the Commander and Vice Commander," Ritsuko said.

The door to the control room suddenly opened, and as if summoned by the mention of him, Kozo Fuyutski strode in.

"Speak of the devil," Ritsuko said, turning to the base's second in command. "Sir, Mr. Bleak has scored a zero on all three sync tests. What's the fate of our pilot candidate?"

"Hmm, well, if Marduk believes there's something to him, I won't just throw him away," Fuyutski replied. "We'll keep him on the roster and test him occasionally. See if he figures out how to sync with enough practice."

_Damn it!_ Maya thought.

"I'm glad to hear that you're giving me a chance, sir," Klarion said, still with that vaguely sarcastic, almost mocking tone he'd been using from the very beginning.

"Yes, well, I hope you'll also be glad to hear that you get to start school on Monday," Fuyutski said, an unusually crafty grin appearing on his face.

Finally, Klarion's face showed something other than sardonic amusement. He looked surprised, and perhaps displeased. "School?"

"Oh yes," Fuyutski said. "We wouldn't want to deprive you of your education. Here at NERV, we try to allow the pilots as normal a life as possible."

"I see," Klarion said, that annoying little grin of his slowly returning. "Well, I look forward to meeting my fellow pilots there."

Maya's eyes widened, his words causing something she hadn't even considered to occur to her. What if this boy wasn't just here to try and find her? What if he was also here to allow SEELE to exert some kind of influence on Shinji?

A _Homo Magi_ could unleash terrible suffering upon an unsuspecting, normal human, if he really wanted to…

_Damn,_ Maya thought. _It looks like I've still got my work cut out for me, after all._

* * *

One really doesn't appreciate the numbers of connections and the amount of personal history the average individual has, Gendo Ikari concluded as he continued to pour over the various "study materials" Fuyutski had given him.

It wasn't helping that he was far from the average individual.

Putting down one of the dossiers on himself, Gendo pushed his glasses up and rubbed his eyes with his gloved hands. The light in his cavernous office was just right for giving it an ominous atmosphere to intimidate people, but for reading, it could have been a lot better.

Deciding that he could use a break from cramming on the subject of himself, Gendo got out of his chair, his joints popping as he rose to his feet.

Some the things he was reading didn't quite feel right, and there were gaps in the information. That was understandable; he couldn't expect Fuyutski to be able to write a completely comprehensive textbook about Gendo Ikari's life. However, it meant that there were some things he'd have to discover for himself.

The issue of his late wife was one of the most disturbing; according to Fuyutski, he had made a point of rounding up all the photographs of her and destroying them after her death in a fit of grief. That didn't strike Gendo as the kind of thing he would do somehow; he just couldn't picture himself performing an act that was so…pointlessly melodramatic.

However, finding out about his dead wife would probably be difficult, he mused as he stepped into an elevator. As far as he understood, of the people currently working for NERV, only Fuyutski had known Yui.

No matter, he decided as the elevator came to a stop to allow another passenger entry, there were other mysteries in need of solving.

"Father…"

_Like this one,_ Gendo decided, looking down at the boy who was apparently his son, searching the teenager's features for any resemblance to Yui that would spark a memory of his wife.

He found none.

"Well?" Gendo spoke, noting how Shinji was hesitating outside the elevator.

The boy paused for another moment, then silently stepped inside. The doors closed and the elevator again began to descend. Shinji didn't venture a word.

According to the records Fuyutski had given him, father and son had not lived together for about a decade. They hadn't even lived in the same city until NERV had needed Shinji to pilot Unit One.

It didn't exactly take a genius to realize that something was seriously wrong with his relationship with his son. The only question was whether the problem was him, the boy, or both of them.

That mystery seemed much easier to solve.

"What are you doing the Sunday after next, Shinji?" Gendo asked.

The boy turned to look up at him with wide, surprised eyes. It took Gendo a second to realize that his use of his son's given name was the cause of the boy's shock.

"I, um, I don't have any plans, Father," Shinji answered.

"Good," Gendo said. "In that case, would you like to have lunch with me that afternoon?"

"I'd like that a lot," Shinji said, looking as though the concept absolutely terrified him.

"Excellent," Gendo said. "I will see you then."

Almost as if on cue, the elevator pinged and the doors slid open, revealing the floor Gendo wanted. The Commander of NERV silently strode out, and the doors slid closed behind him.

* * *

"Are you all right, Shinji?" Maya asked that Saturday when he arrived at her place for further tutoring. "You look a little…dazed."

Shinji's eyes focused on her for the first time since he'd arrived at her apartment. "I'm still waiting to wake up," he blurted out, then looked rather embarrassed at having said such a thing.

Maya smiled, bemused. "Wake up? Now why is that?" she asked as she ushered him toward her kitchen table.

"It's nothing," Shinji said dismissively.

"Oh, come on now, don't do that to me," Maya said gently as she got a couple of drinks for them out of the fridge, not bothering to ask him if he wanted one and thus having to deal with his protests like last time. "You can't say something like that and then clam up."

"It's really nothing," Shinji said. "I'm sure you wouldn't find it interesting."

"Try me," Maya pressed, placing a can of soda before him.

"I, um, I'm really sorry, but I can't," Shinji squirmed uncomfortably.

Maya resisted the urge to hold back a sigh, once again able to practically _see_ the nearly palpable cloud of gloom that often seemed to hang around the Third Child. He looked even more downcast than usual, she realized.

_I really need to do something to get him to open up to me,_ Maya thought. _He's still uncomfortable being here with me. I can't help him if he's like this._

She also wasn't really sure how much longer she could stand him if he was always like this, but she shoved that ungenerous thought away.

_How do I get to him, though? With magic?_ She wondered.

Then a thoughtful look appeared on her face as she realized, with some reluctance, that that actually wasn't such a bad idea, and it would probably make it easier for her to give him _that_, too.

"Come on, Shinji," Maya urged. "If you tell me what's bothering you, I'll give you a little something."

"What? Oh, no, that's not necessary," Shinji said at once, holding up his hands in a warding gesture.

"Oh, it won't be anything big," Maya assured him. "Here, I'll show it to you…" she made a show of searching for something but didn't produce the promised reward. "Hmm, where did I put it?"

"Ibuki-san…Maya, you really don't have to…"

"Ah! Here it is!" the brunette exclaimed suddenly.

She quickly reached over to Shinji, catching him by surprise, and plucked a small, flat disk of shining yellow metal about the size of quarter from behind his ear. It had a tiny hole in it, through which a string had been pulled through. He blinked dumbly as she held it in her palm and showed it to him.

"Neat trick," he said after a second. "Where did you learn it?"

It was an obvious attempt at changing the subject of the conversation, but Maya decided to go along with it for the moment.

"I paid for college by working as a stage magician. I used to be known as 'the Amazing Aya' at a club called The Jade Maiden," she confessed. "It's kind of embarrassing for me, though, since I've always tried to be a woman of science. I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone my secret."

"I won't tell," Shinji swore at once.

"Thank you. Anyway, this thing," Maya held up the little metal disk on a string, "is a good luck charm. It never did much for me, but I thought maybe if you wore it might bring you luck."

"I can't accept this," Shinji protested.

"Oh, of course you can," Maya said. "It's just a brass charm. It's not like it's made of gold or anything. I picked the thing up years ago for about ten yen."

She neglected to mention how she had spent a good portion of the previous night using a magnifying glass and an exacto knife to painstakingly engrave various protective spells onto the thing, having to write them all backwards. Somehow, she didn't think that it would make Shinji more willing to accept the talisman.

"Now, getting back to the subject at hand, I'll let you have this," she held up the charm again, letting it catch the sunlight streaming through her window, "if you'll tell me what's bothering you."

Shinji hesitated for a moment, then finally seemed to relent, accepting the charm and placing it around his neck, slipping the brass disk beneath his shirt. "My father invited me to lunch one week from tomorrow."

"I see," the brunette replied, carefully keeping a neutral expression on her face, rather than the surprised look that wanted to be there.

If he had let her know that his father was apparently trying to get closer to him last week, the techie would have tried to convince him to be cautious, as subtly and as gracefully as she could, of course. Now that she'd wiped the Commander's mental slate clean, however, she wasn't really sure what the right course of action was in this situation. Obviously it would help matters if they could actually develop a positive relationship, but mind wiped or not, she still have a whole lot of faith that Gendo Ikari would be a good father.

"And how do you feel about that?" she asked tentatively.

"A little excited, but mostly nervous," Shinji answered dolefully.

"Well, that's understandable," Maya said. "You two really haven't spoken much in a long time, have you?"

Shinji shook his head. "If I was a little nervous, that would be okay. But I'm practically _terrified._ I shouldn't be so afraid of having a meal with my own father. It's like there's something wrong with me."

"Shinji, there's nothing wrong with you," Maya said. "Your father, well, the fact of the matter is, he's scary."

_That_ had come out far more bluntly than she'd intended, but to her relief, Shinji actually laughed briefly at her assertion. "Yeah, I guess he is," he said. Then paused and added, "I'm thinking about calling him up and making up some excuse to not go."

"If you think you won't regret doing that, then go ahead," Maya said.

That gave him pause, and he didn't make any sort of reply. Suppressing a sigh, Maya asked him what he needed help with in school this week. The two of them covered the new material from several of the subjects Shinji was taking in school, which his teacher had apparently not bothered to explain to the students at all. He was, as before, gratifyingly quick to learn under her tutelage, but Maya still had to work at not letting his depressed demeanor get under her skin.

_It's not his fault he's like this,_ she told herself, as she had last time she'd tutored him. _All things considered, he could be much worse._

Which was quite true, but it didn't help _her_. Just because someone else had broken the spirit of the boy before her, that didn't make putting it back together again any easier or less arduous a task for her.

Finally, they had made it through everything Shinji felt he needed help with that week, and the Third Child started packing up to go.

"Shinji," she said, just as he'd finished stuffing his textbooks into his school bag, "Wait a second, please."

He looked up at her silently.

Maya held her hand out, and with a flick of her wrist, caused a paper flower to abruptly bloom from her sleeve.

Startled, Shinji jumped back, then, realizing what had just happened, he chuckled sheepishly. A wide, involuntary smile appeared on his face in response to the illusion.

_Oh, he's cute when he smiles!_ Maya thought, so surprised by how utterly the simple change in expression had affected Shinji's appearance that she didn't even realize she was having such a thought about a teenage boy.

"This is for you," Maya said, plucking the paper flower from the little spring loaded device that it had popped out from and handing it to him.

"Me?" he asked, blushing as he accepted the flower. "Why?"

"I just…wanted to give you a little something," Maya said. "Listen, Shinji, you're a great young man, and you've been saving us all, even though you never wanted to pilot EVA to begin with. I wanted to let you know that, and that if your father doesn't want anything to do with you, then it's because he's an idiot, not because there's something wrong with you."

"Thank you," Shinji said quietly.

"Well, I'll see you around, Shinji," Maya said. "Oh, and same time next week?"

"Um, sure," he agreed, nodding his head. "Next week. Bye, Maya."

He departed, and Maya closed the door after him once he was out of sight, shaking her head. That boy really needed to learn to cheer up and stop worrying so much.

_And he should smile more often,_ she added, still amazed with the way his whole face had briefly lit up after she'd produced that little paper flower.

She'd forgotten about how magic, even fake magic, could do that. For all the wonders science had produced, it had never quite had the same power to so easily make people happy that magic had always possessed.

* * *

It was more a quirk of the city's geography that saw the trio of pilots walk together to school than anything else. Shinji and Asuka, of course, lived in the same apartment, and Rei's course just happened to intersect with theirs, so more often then not, they arrived at their place of (dubious) learning as a group.

That morning was no exception, and the pilots reached the schoolyard to find that a new boy was loitering about in an island of space created by the other students.

"Wonder who he is?" Asuka commented to no one in particular as they drew near.

"I don't know," Shinji said.

"Of course you don't," Asuka replied. "If _I_ don't, then how could _you_?"

Shinji just rolled his eyes. Asuka, who was walking in front of him, didn't notice.

The three of them continued to approach the school, none of them actually planning to speak with the new boy. Rei was uninterested, and Shinji had never been that social. As for Asuka, she was confident that she would find out enough soon through the school's grapevine. The most popular girl in school couldn't just be seen talking to some random guy, after all.

However, all these considerations were rendered moot when he spotted them and approached, the student body unconsciously making way for the new arrival…or perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that they were unconsciously avoiding him.

"Hullo," the new boy greeted him enthusiastically. "You three must be the other pilots."

Asuka's eyes narrowed, and Shinji could tell by the look on her face and the slight shift of her posture that the Second Child was entering battle mode. Without even realizing he was doing so, Shinji retreated a step away from her.

"'Other pilots'? You're a new EVA pilot?" Asuka asked.

"Oh, yes, I'm Klarion Bleak," the boy introduced himself, bowing with a flourish. "Recently 'discovered' by the Marduk Institute. However, from the way I scored a zero in three straight sync tests, I can't help but wonder if they mightn't have blundered with me."

The Second Child immediately relaxed upon learning upon this bit of information, which meant that the new kid was clearly no threat to her status as top pilot. Seeing the redhead cool down, Shinji relaxed as well.

"In any case, I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other in the future," Klarion said. "For now, though, I really must explore the rest of this 'school' place."

And with that, he walked off, humming cheerfully to himself as he went.

"He's creepy," Asuka bluntly observed once the new kid was out of earshot.

Shinji frowned slightly. He would never had said such a thing about someone he'd just met…but he couldn't honestly disagree with the sentiment. There had definitely been something unsettling about Klarion.

Unconsciously, he reached up and gently touched the place where the good luck charm Maya had given him was hidden beneath his shirt.

"I wonder why he's still here if he can't pilot," Shinji said. "I mean, you can tell from the accent that he's not from Japan. I would have expected him to be allowed to go home if he failed all the sync tests they've given him."

"I'll bet they never expected him to be able to pilot," Asuka said dismissively. "He's probably related to some big shot in the Marduk Institute, who sent him here so he could enjoy all the privileges that come with piloting without taking any of the risks."

Shinji was about to ask her what privileges she was talking about exactly when the first bell rang, letting the students know that they should probably start heading to class. With a mental shrug, the Third Child prepared himself for another few hours of being lectured about Second Impact.

* * *

_I never knew that school could be so frightfully dull,_ Klarion mused about an hour later, sitting at his desk with his head propped up on his fist.

The whole experience had been quite a novel one until class had actually begun, then it had all just become insufferably boring. He wondered why the other students tolerated it. He certainly wouldn't have, if he had any choice in the matter.

_Ah, but that's the problem,_ a nasty little voice in the back of his mind spoke up, _you don't._

Klarion grimaced as he considered the awful truth of that. Keel had promised awful things if Klarion didn't do exactly what he said, and the Witch Boy had been instructed to blend in as much as possible while he sought the magician who'd meddled with the council's mysterious machinations.

So much as he'd like to reduce this terribly boring place to a pile of rubble, that just wasn't an option.

_Still, perhaps a little mischief to liven this place up…_

Klarion shook his head. No, he couldn't do that, couldn't take such a terrible risk simply for his own amusement. It would be foolish. Downright stupid.

The teacher continued to drone on and on about events that Klarion couldn't have cared less about. It was sweltering inside the classroom, and the school uniform he'd been forced to wear felt strange and uncomfortable against his skin. He felt his resolve wavering.

_No,_ he thought, _I can't._

With a sigh, Klarion settled back into his uncomfortable chair, trying to ignore the way his sweat was making his shirt stick to the back of it. Never before had he been so bored…

A soft meow cut through the unhappy doze he'd been slipping into, and Klarion turned toward the window. A tabby cat was sitting on the ledge outside, one paw pressing against the glass. No one else seemed to have noticed it yet.

_Teekl…_

The cat meowed again, but Klarion remained the only person to take notice of it. The Witch Boy could sense the mind of the familiar feline; Teekl was as bored as he was.

The silent urgings of his cat was all it took to finally cause Klarion's resolve to crumble. His hand went up.

"Hmm? Yes, what is it?" the teacher acknowledged him after a moment.

"I don't feel well, sir," Klarion said. "May I go to the nurse?"

"Fine, fine," the teacher waved him away dismissively and immediately resumed his mind numbing lecture.

Klarion gratefully left the classroom, amazed at how much cooler it was in the halls, then quickly headed for the boy's bathroom. The Witch Boy quickly checked the stalls to ensure that he was alone, then he locked the doors.

A little prank wouldn't hurt anything.

Closing his eyes, Klarion focused on the unseen forces which flowed through the world, the one that so many people in the realm above his home were so totally ignorant about. A few arcane words slipped forth from his mouth, a bastardized mixture of Latin, ancient Greek, and languages never spoken in the light of the sun before.

The Witch Boy opened his eyes, which now glowed with an unholy white light. He spoke a single word in his native English.

"Come."

A sphere of eerie pink light formed in the air before him, and dozens of winged creatures, each no longer than the length of his hand, flew out from it in a great swarm.

The creatures vaguely resembled pixies. They were humanoid, tiny, and each of them had a pair of wings like those of a dragon-fly on their back. However, that was where the similarity to the popular depiction of a wood sprite ended. They all had skin of a shocking dark pink color, and they all boasted sharp, needle-like teeth and wicked claws. They were pint sized beasts of nightmares, not creatures of a children's fairly tale; Tinkerbell if she'd been dreamed up by a horror novelist.

Grinning as the unnatural white light left his eyes and the doorway he'd summoned these creatures through faded, Klarion pointed silently at the air vent in the bathroom. The grating was ancient, with unusually large holes for the air to travel through. It was perfect for the things Klarion had called, and they obediently plunged into the school's ventilation system, eager to cause chaos.

Once they were gone, a smiling Witch Boy placed the tips of his fingers on either side of his head. Mentally reaching out, he searched the school, quickly locating the mind of his cat and linking his consciousness to it. In seconds, he was again looking into his classroom, this time seeing it through Teekl's eyes.

Klarion settled in to watch, preparing to enjoy this.

* * *

Listening to the sensei droning on and on about Second Impact, Shinji had to resist a yawn. Before he'd found out that what the public believed about the disastrous event was nothing more than a giant cover story, he'd always been able to force at least some small portion of his attention onto the lectures. Since he'd learned that, however, it had become a struggle just to stay awake most days.

_I wonder what was wrong with Klarion,_ Shinji thought, admittedly more out of boredom than anything else.

He heard the buzzing before the thought had even completed itself. Frowning, he looked about, confused about what it could be and where it was coming from; it almost seemed like the sound was originating from all around the class.

Whatever it was, Shinji wasn't the only one hearing it; the other students around him were also searching the room, looking for the source of the strange sound. Their elderly teacher appeared to be the only one who was oblivious to the noise.

And then the grating on the classroom's vent exploded as a swarm of…something poured in like a cloud of locusts.

_Pink locusts?_ Shinji wondered, even as several of the girls (and a couple of the guys) screamed in surprise and terror as the things dispersed through the room at lightning speed.

They weren't locusts, Shinji realized as soon as he got a better look at one of the things, but he had idea what they actually _were_, just that they were causing chaos. The tiny things were scratching and biting at the boys and getting into the girls' hair, eliciting a series of high pitched shrieks of horror and revulsion.

Most of the students were waving their arms in the air, trying desperately to swat their miniature attackers, but the tiny beasts were far too quick for the lowly humans to hit. A couple of the panicked boys tried to erect some sort of weird barricade using a few upturned desks which had been knocked over by other frantic students, apparently not realizing that such a thing would be no obstacle to the winged menaces. Shinji saw one of the girls dart into a small closet adjacent to the classroom, only to have five or six of the tiny beasts follow her inside.

The malicious little things were totally undiscriminating in their targets…except when it came to Shinji. The Third Child was completely unmolested by the swarm of vicious pixie-like creatures, and the few that tried to harass him seemed to hit an invisible wall around him and bounce off, hissing angrily and then switching targets.

The Third Child just sat at his desk, shocked and clueless as to why he was immune. Unbeknownst to Shinji, the symbols that Maya had painstakingly engraved into his "good luck charm" glowed faintly, their light completely hidden by his shirt.

He wasn't the only person to note his mysterious protection.

"Why aren't they attacking you, baka?!" Asuka demanded, even as she continued to frantically try and get the pixies out of her copper colored mane.

"I…I don't know," Shinji stammered out helplessly.

"Whatever!" Asuka exclaimed, and rushed over to him, shoving her way past a couple of other students to get there.

As she got close to him, the pixie things in her hair extracted themselves and flew away as though her red locks had suddenly become toxic.

"Come on!" Asuka barked, grabbing hold of his arm and pulling his upwards. "We need to get out of here!"

"What about Rei?" Shinji demanded as he got to his feet. "And Toji and Kensuke?"

"Fine, we'll take the First and your stooge friends with us!" Asuka snapped. "Just _move!_"

With that, she roughly spun him around, so she was behind him, then grabbed hold of his shoulders. She pushed him hard, and Shinji had to start moving his feet or get shoved to the floor. He picked the former option.

"Gang way!" Asuka shouted, as she held the Third Child out in front of her in a way that Shinji found was disturbingly reminiscent of a human shield. "EVA pilots coming through!"

Everyone was far too preoccupied to even consider clearing a path, but Asuka wasn't deterred by this, muscling one through for the two of them. In moments, they collected Rei, Toji, and Kensuke, the three of them huddling along with the Second Child in the safety zone Shinji seemed to generate. However, instead of guiding the group for the door, Asuka began to head for the class rep, clearly unwilling to abandon her best friend.

"Hikari!" Asuka shouted. "Come on!"

The class rep looked at tightly pressed group and blinked, surprised to see that the vicious flying creatures were avoiding them all.

"I can't!" she exclaimed. "I can't abandon the class!"

"You're got to be kidding me!" Asuka bellowed. "Just because you're class rep…! Do you think everybody's gonna let you make them form an orderly line and—!"

She was cut off as Toji briefly braved the flying beasts to dart toward Hikari and, firmly but not violently pull her into Shinji's personal bubble of safety. "Come on!" he said, and she seemed to lose her will to remain in the chaotic classroom.

The group made their way through their panicking classmates as quickly as possible, soon reaching the door to the classroom and throwing it open. However, there was no relief outside the room; the hallways were just as badly infested as class 2-A's room.

"Outside!" Toji yelled.

"No _duh_, stooge!" Asuka growled back, directing Shinji toward the nearest exit, which just happened to be a fire door.

"Hey, wait," the Third Child objected, "we can't use that door. It's—"

"This _is_ an emergency, baka!" Asuka growled, then added something in German that Shinji was quite certain was a curse of some kind.

"Oh," he said sheepishly. "Good point."

Alarms started to howl as they opened the fire exit and burst out into the fresh air and sunlight outside. Several of the flying things took their opportunity at freedom, but they continued to avoid Shinji and those around him. Even so, the small cluster of students withdrew to a decent distance away from the school before they stopped.

For several long moments, they just stood and stared at their school, listening to the fire alarms and the yells from inside that betrayed the chaos taking place within. As they watched, several other students managed to escape to the relative safety outside the building, and many of the pixie things also left and flew off, heading to who knew where. Soon, they heard the siren of a fire engine responding to the alarm that they'd tripped.

Finally, Asuka spoke. "What the _hell_ were those things?" she asked. "And why did they avoid you?" she added, looking at Shinji.

The Third Child held his hands out helplessly. "I have _no_ idea," he answered with perfect honesty.

* * *

Meanwhile, safe and sound in his little hiding place, Klarion the Witch Boy finally broke his mental link with his cat, blinking as he took in the inside of the boy's bathroom once more. Walking over to the door, he unlocked it and strode out into the hallways, where many panicked students were still enduring the pixie things' attacks. Said creatures didn't harass Klarion at all, and he casually headed for the exit, his fellow students too preoccupied to realize that he was untouched.

The creatures he'd summoned would eventually disperse from the immediate area, but they'd harass the people in Tokyo-3 and the surrounding area for weeks or perhaps even months until they reached the ends of their life spans. However, once their numbers were sufficiently spread out, they would cease to be much more than a nuisance.

He left through a rarely used door and found no one in the immediate area, save for Teekl. The feline meowed loudly. Klarion smiled, scooped up the cat, and placed it down on his shoulder.

Believing, correctly, that the school day was now quite over, the Witch Boy began to head for home.

"Well, Teekl, that was fun," he commented.

Teekl purred in response. Klarion reached up and began to stroke the cat's fur.

"But more than that, it was interesting, too," he continued. "Do you know why?"

Teekl meowed.

"They wouldn't touch Shinji Ikari," Klarion said. "Avoided him like the plague."

Teekl just looked at him with large, intense eyes. Klarion smirked. "I think my fellow pilot might just be the one I was sent to find."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And here Maya thought for a moment that she could retire the Zatanna identity. Silly Maya.

The pacing of this chapter felt pretty rushed to me, almost frantic, but the fact of the matter is that Maya's story started fairly late in the timeline, which means there's a lot that needs to get done in a relatively short amount of time.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. And thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for a little fun!

* * *

Omakes!

Ritsuko and Gendo's New Relationship

"So you say that we're lovers?" Gendo asked as he entered the house of the blond scientist.

"That's right," Ritsuko said. "We keep it professional at work, but we've been…keeping company for some time."

"Indeed?" Gendo said as he was led up to her bedroom. "And you want to resume this relationship?"

Ritsuko grinned. "That was the plan."

"But I don't know you any more," Gendo protested. "This morning it was as if I'd never seen you before. Shouldn't we…start over or something?"

"Oh, don't worry," Ritsuko said. "I'm willing to…re-train you."

"Re-train—ah!" Gendo let out a small yelp as Ritsuko abruptly shoved him hard.

Caught by surprise, the amnesiac Commander of NERV fell onto the scientist's bed. Before he could try and get up, hidden shackles built into the bed suddenly snapped shut, trapping him. Then, a small motor began to whir softly and the bed started to change position, tilting upwards until Gendo was almost vertical again.

It put him in a perfect position to observe Ritsuko as she pulled off her lab coat to reveal a tight black leather outfit beneath it. The scientist opened one of her dresser's draws and pulled out a leather whip.

"I'm going to enjoy teaching you obedience again," Ritsuko smirked evilly.

Gendo's eyes widened. "We…we did this often?"

"Every Friday, at least," Ritsuko answered as she advanced toward him. Then she paused, suddenly seeming thoughtful. "Oh, and you bring me a dozen roses every Tuesday."

"Y-Yes, ma'am," Gendo stammered.

"That's 'Mistress' to you, worm," Ritsuko snapped, deciding that vengeance really was sweet.

And payback really was a bitch.

* * *

A Different (Better) Reward

"Come on, Shinji," Maya urged. "If you tell me what's bothering you, I'll give you a little something."

"What? Oh, no, that's not necessary," Shinji said at once, holding up his hands in a warding gesture.

"Oh, it won't be anything big," Maya assured him. "Here, I'll show it to you…"

The brunette grabbed hold of her dress and, in one smooth motion, tore it clean off herself, leaving her in some lacy black lingerie and her fishnet stockings.

Shinji's eyes widened hugely, and for a long moment, he just stared dumbly at the attractive technician.

Then blood spurted out of his nose in a red geyser and he fainted dead away, collapsing limply to the floor.

Maya sighed and rolled her eyes. That was even more lame than she'd feared.

Fortunately, she had magic powers.

"Ijnihs Iraki semoceb a xes dog," she said, waggling her fingers.

The Third Child instantly regained consciousness, abruptly sitting bolt upright. He absently wiped the blood off his face and turned to Maya with a roguish grin, obviously now brimming with self-confidence. The brunette's heartbeat sped up at the sight.

"Do you need to be able to walk properly tomorrow?" Shinji asked as he got to his feet.

"Let's say I don't," Maya replied.

"Good," Shinji said, his uncharacteristic smile widening. With one smooth movement, he displayed some equally uncharacteristic strength as he swept her up into his arms and headed toward her bedroom, carrying her bridge style. "I'll tell you anything you want me to, Maya-chan, but I don't think you'll be able to listen to me."

"W-Why's that?" Maya asked.

The glint in Shinji's eyes was positively predatory. "Because it'll be hard to hear anything over the sound of you _screaming my name._"


	6. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Five:** Of Mystic Bars and Fights in the Dark

**Mass Hallucination Grips Local School, Authorities Suspect Airborne Hallucinogen to Blame.**

Looking at the headline of the _Tokyo-3 Times_, Maya wasn't sure what part of recent events she found more incredible: that Klarion had acted so brazenly by summoning a swarm of magical nuisances on his _first day_ of school, or that everyone had decided to collectively refuse to believe what the school's staff and student body had told them about the event.

"Dad always did say that normal people would go to extreme lengths to ignore magic," Maya muttered softly to herself as she put down her newspaper. "I guess he was right about that."

The techie quickly skimmed the story, which almost gave her a headache. Some unnamed "experts" speculated that the strange creatures everyone had seen were insects of some kind, which had been released into the school along with whatever airborne hallucinogens had affected everyone.

Of course, there was an obvious problem with this hypothesis: if someone had released a hallucinogenic drug into the school, then everyone should have had _different_ hallucinations, even if the "insects" had influenced them all, but everyone's stories matched up perfectly.

The article about the whole incident carefully avoided pointing this out, instead providing a list of drugs that might be the culprit. Apparently, a fully-equipped hazmat team had gone over the school with a fine-toothed comb over the weekend and found no traces of dangerous substances, but they'd run complete decontamination procedures anyway, just to be safe.

Maya remembered how, as she was growing up, her father would occasionally display mild contempt for people without magic (or the "normals" as he'd sometimes call them). After reading that newspaper article, she thought she might finally be starting to understand his attitude.

"Ugh," she grumbled, putting the paper down and massaging her temples briefly.

One thing was now absolutely certain: she couldn't stop being Zatanna just yet, not in the face of the threat which SEELE had unleashed.

"You know, the Commander's in the base right now, and he won't like it if he catches you reading the newspaper while you're on the clock," Makoto warned her from his terminal.

"The Commander hasn't been out of his office and prowling around for a long time now," Maya pointed out.

Makoto just shook his head. "You're a braver person than I am, Maya."

_Of course I am. I know _why_ the Commander hasn't been around, and I know he probably won't be coming out to stalk around the command center any time soon,_ Maya thought.

"Oh, it's almost quitting time, anyway," she said, "and there's nothing else to do right now. I don't think even the Commander could get _too_ worked up because I'm reading the paper instead of trying to look busy like you and Shigeru."

"I think you overestimate the Commander's mercy," Aoba said in a sotto voice, apparently afraid that the man in question might show up and hear him make this comment.

The conversation sputtered out after that, and not long afterwards, the night shift arrived to relieve them.

"So, any plans for tonight?" Aoba asked as they were all heading for the elevator.

"Sleep," Makoto answered flatly.

"Yeah, same here," Aoba replied glumly. "What about you, Maya?"

The petite brunette sighed. "Some… personal problems I thought were over and done with have come back," she said. "I've decided that I could really use a drink."

Both of her fellow bridge technicians turned to look at her.

"What?" Maya asked.

"I can't imagine you drunk," Aoba said bluntly.

Maya scowled. "I didn't say that I was going to get drunk," she retorted. "I said I was going to get a drink."

The two male technicians traded an amused glance.

"What do you think? Wine coolers?" Makoto asked.

"_Way_ too strong. Virgin Mary's, definitely," Aoba replied.

The two men started laughing as soon as they had said this.

"Knock it off, you two," Maya grumbled with little actual heat, knowing there was no malice behind her co-workers' teasing.

Still, she found it annoyed her that they apparently thought she was a goody-two-shoes, and not least of all because they were pretty much right. She couldn't remember the last time she'd gotten into mischief; she had always been very well-behaved as a child, and she hadn't had time to be wild during college between studying, classes, and her job as a magician in an upscale strip club.

Her lips quirked upwards suddenly. She wondered what her fellow techs would think if they discovered she had worked in a place like the Jade Maiden, or that she had lately taken to cavorting around the city at night in her old costume from the same establishment.

Then the elevator arrived at the floor they had selected, and the three of them got off and headed toward the small train station located in the Geofront that most of the members of NERV used to get to and from the city above. In a few minutes, they were back in Tokyo-3 and were going their separate ways.

Soon Maya was arriving at her apartment, where she immediately began to change out of her NERV uniform and into her Zatanna costume. She hadn't been lying when she'd told Aoba and Makoto that she was going out for a drink, she had just omitted some rather important details about the venue.

"I hope I don't run into anybody I know there," she muttered to herself. Then, pointing her magic wand at herself, she spoke, "Ekat em ot eht Noivilbo Rab."

And with that, she disappeared from her apartment and Tokyo-3 entirely.

* * *

Some people thought that Shinji wasn't exactly the most observant of people, and they wouldn't have been entirely wrong. After all, the Third Child had only recently, after months of fighting Angels, inquired about why they were fighting beings who were the namesakes of God's messengers. However, it would have been unfair and incorrect to say that he was oblivious to _everything_. He was very observant of some things.

The moment he arrived at the school, for instance, he was intensely aware of the way the rest of the student body started staring at him and murmuring.

"Is everyone looking at me?" he quietly asked Asuka, whom he had walked to school with.

The redhead didn't answer immediately. Instead, she took several steps away from him. The anxious eyes of their fellow students didn't follow her, instead remaining fixed upon the Third Child.

"Looks like it," she confirmed nonchalantly, walking back to him.

"Why are they _looking_ at me?" Shinji asked self-consciously.

"How should _I_ know?" Asuka snapped, not sounding very concerned about the issue.

If anything, she seemed vaguely jealous of the attention he was getting.

A silent, awkward moment followed, with Shinji fidgeting beneath the not-surreptitious-enough gazes of his classmates and wondering where the smartest place to withdraw to was.

His thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of the class rep, who walked up to them to greet the Second Child.

"Good morning, Asuka," she said cheerfully.

"Hello, Hikari," the redhead replied in kind.

The freckled girl looked like she was about to say something else to her friend, but she stopped herself upon catching sight of the Third Child. "Shinji, are you all right? You don't look too well."

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine, class rep," he said. "Just…why is everybody looking at me?"

"You don't know?" Hikari asked, looking mildly surprised that he hadn't worked it out yet. "Shinji, a lot of people saw how those things that swarmed the school last Friday avoided you. The rumor mill's started up, and, well, some people think those things might have left you alone because you were the one who called them, or something like that."

Shinji's eyes widened, the idea never having occurred to him that people might leap to such conclusions. For his own part, he had wondered over the weekend why the creatures had seemed repulsed by him, but in the end he'd decided it was a mystery he'd probably never solve and had left it at that.

"Wait a minute, everybody thinks that _Shinji_ called those things here?" Asuka asked incredulously.

"Not everyone, but a lot of people suspect it, yeah," Hikari said.

"That's one of the dumbest things I ever heard!" the Second Child proclaimed.

Shinji looked at his fellow EVA pilot and blinked in pleased surprise. Was Asuka actually defending him? He felt a warm sensation in his chest, and a slow smile began to appear on his face.

"The baka's a completely harmless wimp!" Asuka continued, as though Shinji wasn't standing right there. "The idea of him being behind what happened is _ridiculous_!"

Shinji's shoulders slumped as his illusions were quickly shattered.

"Well, you could understand why some people might suspect Shinji had something to do with it, under the circumstances," Hikari said.

Asuka sniffed. "If you ask me, it's way more likely that creepy new kid Klarion was behind it," she declared. "I don't think anyone saw _him_ running away from those things, either."

The conversation between the two girls continued after this, but Shinji became lost in his own thoughts and stopped paying attention to it.

He never would have spoken aloud what Asuka had just said, and he silently disapproved of her for doing it. Yet he found that he couldn't disagree with her attitude toward the new pilot, though he wasn't nearly so certain that Klarion was behind what had happened. Much as Shinji wanted to be fair and give the new kid a chance, he couldn't deny that the American boy simply gave him the creeps.

His gaze suddenly found the new student in question, who was in the school yard holding the orange-brown tabby that, so far, seemed to be with him whenever class wasn't in session and he wasn't inside NERV headquarters.

As though feeling the Third Child's gaze upon him, Klarion looked up, his eyes locking with Shinji's.

Then Klarion smiled. It wasn't a pleasant thing, but a sinister expression, and it made Shinji immediately look away.

* * *

The Oblivion Bar wasn't just any watering hole. For one thing, it existed inside its own pocket dimension, making it completely impossible to reach by any sort of conventional means. If Zatanna's calculations were correct, not even a Dirac Sea would allow one access to the place.

For another thing, the Oblivion Bar was exclusive. Magicians and wizards were prohibited from bringing people without supernatural powers with them, though some of the more powerful patrons sometimes did, anyway, trusting that no one would dare to enforce the rules when it came to them.

Yet for how hard it was to get into the place, the bar itself wasn't much of anything to look at. Indeed, it was indistinguishable from any other cheap bar out there.

Zatanna wasn't surprised. She had never actually been to the Oblivion Bar before, but she had sometimes overheard her father discussing some incident which had occurred at the place with a friend, and Natsume sometimes attempted to get Maya to agree to meet her for a drink there, usually as part of some thinly-veiled attempt at having their father and the younger Ibuki sister meet there by "accident."

The nature of the patrons also didn't surprise her. She wasn't shocked by their greatly-varied and sometimes incredible appearances in the least. Having been raised by a _Homo Magi_ who often kept company with others of his kind, Zatanna didn't even bat an eyebrow at the bipedal, dragonic creature which nodded politely to her as she entered.

What _did_ surprise her was how few patrons were there. Her father had described the place as always bustling and crowded, when he reminisced with some old buddy or another about his younger days, but the bar was nearly empty. Several stools and tables were vacant, and the bar tender looked outright bored.

_Geeze,_ she thought, looking at the depleted clientele.

She had known, of course, that the Ninth Age of Magic had ended when Second Impact had hit, and that the lives of many magical beings had ended with it. However, she would have expected that their numbers would have increased significantly, now that the world was more than a decade into the Tenth Age.

The computer technician knew it shouldn't mean anything to her, but she found herself saddened to discover how few _Homo Magi_ were apparently around all the same.

There was one fortunate effect of the sparseness of the crowd, though; it made it very easy for Zatanna to determine who was there and who wasn't. She had been very afraid of running into her sister, or, even worse, her father.

_I really don't want to know what he'd say if he found out what I've been doing,_ she thought as she walked toward the bar. _Not to mention what he'd say if he discovered I was dressing like this._

She could feel the gazes of several of the patrons on her legs as she went, and Zatanna had to restrain a sigh of annoyance. She supposed she couldn't have expected a cheap—if magical—bar to be filled with gentlemen, but still, this was more attention than her alter ego got in a month.

That the main difference between Maya and Zatanna was fishnet stockings didn't exactly raise her opinion of the male half of the species.

Ignoring this, Zatanna focused her eyes on the bartender, who was almost as much of a character as the other patrons. He appeared perfectly human, but his choice of wardrobe more than made up for it. The man wore a blue cloak with a high collar over a blazer of the same shade and a white shirt. A big, gaudy medallion of gold hung from his neck, and in defiance of common manners, he was wearing a fedora inside. This bit of headgear was the same blue as most of the rest of his ensemble and the shadow from the brim hid his eyes.

"Hello, Stranger," Zatanna greeted him, sitting down on one of the bar stools.

"Good afternoon, Miss," he greeted her politely. "What can I get for you?"

After her co-workers' teasing, Zatanna was half tempted to order hard liquor. However, her better judgment won out. "Rum and coke," she said.

The bartender quickly prepared the drink, which Zatanna sipped at for a while in silence.

"You don't come here often, do you?" the bartender asked her after a while.

"No," Zatanna answered. "I guess I don't."

"I take it you don't drink much, then?" the bartender asked mildly.

"No, I don't," Zatanna replied, leaving out that this wasn't the main reason why she didn't visit the Oblivion Bar regularly. "But I really needed a drink today."

"Troubles with your boyfriend?" the bartender asked.

Zatanna didn't fail to catch the tiny, ironic smile that caused the sides of his mouth to quirk upwards, making the man look as though he knew somehow that she wasn't having boy problems, but that he felt the need to ask the oh-so-clichéd question anyway.

"Not exactly," Zatanna replied, having trouble keeping herself from smirking. "Tell me, do you keep an eye on what passes from realm to realm?"

"In this profession, it's hard not to," the man replied mildly. "Why? Do you wish to know something?"

"A few days ago, someone summoned a swarm of… something to Tokyo-3," Zatanna answered. "I need to know exactly what they were."

"I believe they were Kahndaqi Sprites," the bartender said.

Zatanna winced slightly despite herself. Kahndaqi Sprites were the magical equivalent of mosquitoes; they were annoying as hell but mostly harmless.

Unless, of course, they picked up a disease and started transferring it to their victims. And the sort of diseases that magical creatures tended to pick up made West Nile Virus look like a case of the sniffles.

"Damn," she grumbled.

"Considering going after them?" the bartender asked.

"Yes," Zatanna said.

"I would be careful about that if I were you," he said. "Actions have consequences."

"Do they ever," Zatanna agreed tiredly.

With that, she finished her drink, placed some money on the counter, and left the Oblivion Bar.

* * *

Fuyutski had never felt so frazzled before in his entire life. There were seemingly millions of pieces of information he needed Gendo to learn as soon as possible, while there were at least hundreds of thousands of pieces of information he needed the Commander to remain ignorant of, and it was sometimes frighteningly difficult to tell which was which.

It was the sort of situation that could drive a man to drink, and Fuyutski probably would have drowned his stress in alcohol if he wasn't afraid of confessing while drunk. Dr. Akagi wasn't faring any better; the scientist was smoking more than ever. He had even heard that someone had nearly pulled the fire alarm upon seeing dark clouds billowing out of her office when she opened her door.

_Perhaps I shouldn't have done this,_ he thought dourly, and not for the first time.

His grim musings were interrupted when he noticed that Gendo was no longer seated at his desk, going over paperwork. Instead, the younger man was putting on his uniform jacket, looking like he was about to depart.

"Where are you going?" Fuyutski asked more sharply than he intended.

Gendo was not nonplussed by the older man's tone. That much, at least, hadn't changed at all.

"I am meeting my son for lunch," Gendo said.

Fuyutski blinked at this, and he nearly gaped at it, too. If he hadn't known what had happened to Gendo, he would have asked the man who he was and what he'd done with the real Commander.

He regained his composure just in time to tell Gendo to have fun before the bearded man was out the door.

The old professor smiled slightly to himself, feeling good about what he'd done for the first time in what seemed like forever. Perhaps, just perhaps, Gendo's amnesia could make things even more impossible than the prevention of Third Impact possible.

* * *

To any outside observer who knew them, the only odd part of the lunch that Gendo Ikari was sharing with Shinji was that it was happening it at all. After they had exchanged some cursory greetings and ordered their food, the meal proceeded in perfect silence.

However, if someone could have looked into the mind of Gendo Ikari, they would have found it calculating and spinning in very unusual patterns.

The boy was afraid of him, Gendo quickly surmised; any idiot could have told as much. The restaurant's air conditioner kept the temperature of the place comfortably cool, but the younger Ikari was sweating bullets. If that didn't make his anxiety obvious enough, Shinji's wide, frightened eyes certainly did.

Still, his bizarre situation making him cautious, Gendo waited for Shinji to say something.

He was still waiting as he finished his meal. The Third Child had looked like he was going to say something several times, but he had visibly lost the nerve during each such incident.

All of this silence was not, of course, nearly as illuminating as Gendo had hoped the meal would be. The awkward and uncomfortable experience did make him certain of one thing, though: Shinji was not the reason the two of them did not live together. The timid and silent boy before him never would have had the gall to demand separation from his sole remaining parent.

No, Gendo himself was the reason that he was estranged from his son and didn't live with him.

Now the question was why had he done it? Why had he sent his own son away? Had he had a good reason to do so… or had he just been something of a bastard before he'd lost his memory?

Gendo didn't like to think that the latter was correct, but a gut instinct told him that it might well be. At the very least, he couldn't imagine a justifiable reason for him to have so shunned his only child.

_But what do I do in this situation?_ He wondered.

He was only too aware of how precarious his position was, thanks to his amnesia. One wrong move, no matter how innocuous it might seem at the time, could be ruinous not just for him, but for the entire world.

And yet… and _yet_…

"I'm glad that we were able to spend time together like this, Father," Shinji said, jolting Gendo from his musings.

The Commander looked up in surprise, only belatedly realizing that he'd been thinking so deeply about the conundrum he was confronted with that when the waiter had arrived with the check, he'd paid without even thinking about it. The meal was over, and Shinji was about to leave.

_If anything positive is going to come out of this…_ he thought, coming to a snap decision.

"Shinji, wait," he said.

The Third Child immediately froze, surprised both by his father's desire to extent their meeting and the man's use of his given name.

"Y-Yes, Father?" Shinji asked.

"There's something I need to tell you," Gendo said, "but not here. Come with me."

"Yes, Father," Shinji agreed at once.

The Third Child was clearly bursting with curiosity, but it was just as clear that he didn't have the nerve to ask the questions he doubtlessly had in mind. Gendo wondered exactly what he'd done to have so completely cowed his own son.

With Gendo leading, the two of them proceeded to a Geofront access point and boarded the express tram to NERV Headquarters. Once inside the pyramidal building, Gendo headed for the nearest unoccupied room he could find.

Shinji looked relieved when he saw that they weren't heading to Gendo's office. The Commander of NERV couldn't blame him.

The room they'd found themselves in was an empty office, and there were a pair of chairs present. Gendo gestured for Shinji to sit in one and then took the other.

"There is a secret I wish to share with you," Gendo began, now that they were finally alone and in a place he could be sure was not bugged. "However, it is of critical importance that this information does not become public knowledge, so you must not speak to anyone about it. Not to _anyone_. Do you believe you can keep a secret from everyone?"

Shinji paused a moment to consider, then nodded. "If I have to," he said. "What is it, Father?"

"Not long ago, and for reasons which are yet unknown, I suffered from amnesia," Gendo said.

"Wh-What?" Shinji asked, stunned.

"I know," Gendo grumbled ruefully. "It seems like the sort of thing that only happens in bad drama stories."

"How much?" Shinji asked. "How much did you forget?"

"Just about everything," Gendo said. "The first morning after I'd lost my memory, I didn't know my own name. My face in the mirror wasn't a familiar sight."

"Then you don't remember…?" Shinji trailed off, pointing at himself.

"No," Gendo answered, then paused for a moment to collect his thoughts and plan his words. "I can't apologize for the things I might have done to you in the past, because I don't remember doing them."

Gendo paused for a moment, and looked at Shinji, who was gazing at him with a mixture of hope and apprehension in his eyes.

"I suppose this offers me with a unique opportunity," Gendo went on. "Shinji, if you would be willing, we could consider the slate to have been wiped clean and try to start over between us."

Shinji's eyes widened.

"I will understand, of course, if you wish for us to just proceed as we have been," Gendo said.

"N-No," Shinji stammered. "I'd _like_ to…to start over. I'd like that a lot, Father."

Gendo nodded. "I am glad to hear that," he said, then added, "however, you realize that my duties at NERV will still preclude our seeing one another much?"

"Oh," Shinji said, sounding slightly surprised. He hadn't realized apparently. "Of course, Father."

"I will do my best to make time to see you when I can," Gendo said. "And when the war is finished, there will be plenty of opportunities for us to become reacquainted."

"Yes, Father," Shinji agreed.

"I will see you later, Shinji," Gendo said.

"Yes, Father," Shinji said, a faint but hopeful smile on his face.

* * *

Zatanna scowled darkly as she regarded the little winged creature she had firmly clamped between her thumb and forefinger. The angry little thing was furiously attempting to bite or claw at her, but she'd learned how to hold the blasted sprites so that all they could do was struggle impotently in her grasp. The multiple little punctures and scratches on her hands were a testament to how painful that lesson was to learn.

She removed the crystal pendulum she had used outside Gendo's home some time ago from the pocket of her tuxedo coat and held it up to the creature. The pendulum swung about in response to the sprite's magical aura, but the motion was steady and regular; it wasn't diseased, just like all the others she'd encountered that night.

Putting the pendulum away, Zatanna pointed her wand at the pixie and spoke. "Og kcab ot erehw uoy emac morf."

The sprite vanished in a small, brief flare of light.

"Just a few hundred more to go," she muttered to herself, disgruntled.

She had imagined quite a lot of unpleasant things happening when she'd removed her old magician costume from its place in storage, but she had never dreamed she'd end up working as a glorified exterminator.

With the sprite gone, Zatanna held up her pendulum again, and it immediately came to life again, pointing in the direction of the southeast, toward her next target.

Of course, at this rate, the little enchanted pests would die off by themselves before she captured most of them, and she was just decreasing the already minimal odds of a magical plague sweeping across the city.

The whole thing made her want to just go home and go to bed.

"Or hunt down Klarion and punish the stupid brat for doing this," she grumbled darkly to herself.

_Honestly, unleashing things like those damn sprites, and for no good reason I can figure out,_ she thought. _The boy obviously doesn't care if he hurts someone._

It was only her extreme reluctance to confront the agent of SEELE head-on that kept her from seeking him out. And if she wasn't fairly certain that the secret cabal would tug on his leash in response to the stunt he'd pulled at the school, she probably would have paid him a visit as Zatanna anyway.

Pushing aside all her disgust, Zatanna started heading in the direction of the next sprite, blissfully unaware of what the night held for her.

* * *

Ritsuko Akagi didn't know what she was doing. She had been trying to plan out this moment from the instant she knew it was coming, but she had never been able to create so much as a vague idea of what she wanted to happen. So she was winging it.

Which was insane. Ritsuko Akagi _never_ just winged it.

Yet here she was, sitting in the NERV officer's club with Gendo Ikari and having no idea what came next.

"Dr. Akagi," Gendo spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "Need I remind you that you asked me to come here?"

The bottle blonde held back a scowl at this. The loss of his memory had seen him also lose the force which drove him to do such insane and cruel things, but for all that, his personality really hadn't changed all that much. He was still a cold and demanding person, and she could still see the ever-present calculating look in his eyes, despite his tinted glasses.

She wondered what the hell had possessed her to ask to speak with him before she had any sort of plan of action in mind.

"We have some kind of relationship, don't we?" Gendo asked.

"What? How do you kn—?" Ritsuko snapped her mouth shut in mid word before she could betray herself entirely.

"Logic, Doctor," Gendo answered matter-of-factly. "Fuyutski informed me that he'd told you about what had happened to me. He only would have done that if he trusted you implicitly, or if it would have been impossible for me to keep you from realizing that something was wrong with me. The latter implies a relationship outside of work."

While the reasoning was basically sound, Ritsuko still couldn't figure out how Gendo had deduced that they shared a relationship from that. She was just about to say so when he continued.

"Of course, if the reason Fuyutski told you was because he trusted you, that wouldn't have given you any reason to ask me to come here to speak with you," he added.

Ritsuko blinked and then slumped in her seat. Intact memory or not, the man in front of her was definitely still Gendo Ikari, there was no mistaking that.

Even though she had naively believed that he would sit patiently and wait until she had figured out what she wanted to do and say.

"Your reluctance to speak once you got me here, however, suggests that you're unsure about our relationship," Gendo went on. "Perhaps you were considering ending it, and you're contemplating just keeping quiet and allowing to be as though it had never begun."

Ritsuko kept silent, having no idea what she could say in the face of all this.

"Then again, it's possible that I've missed the mark entirely," Gendo said. "Maybe you just needed to speak with me about some technical problem concerning the Evangelions."

She could tell that Gendo didn't really believe that; he obviously wasn't even trying to hide his skepticism. Yet despite his intimidating ability to read her like a book, he was still very much in the dark. Even if she told him that she _had_ asked to speak to him about some technical problem, he'd have to accept it, if not believe it.

_"Tell him that he makes a habit of bringing you a dozen roses every Tuesday, or act like there's never been anything between the two of you at all."_ Fuyutski's words echoed in her mind.

What was she doing?

"We were… romantically involved before you lost your memory, yes," Ritsuko said.

_Maybe, with his memory of Yui gone, he could finally focus on me,_ she thought, feeling a spark of hope come to life within her breast.

"But…?" Gendo prompted her, clearly not willing to let her earlier reluctance slide without an explanation.

_Oh, who the hell am I kidding?_ Ritsuko wondered with an internal sigh.

The sight of _her_ would never cause that calculating look to leave his eyes.

"It wasn't a very passionate relationship, even to begin with," Ritsuko said. "By now it was mostly just me going to your home to do… _that_."

"I see," Gendo said. "And do you wish to continue this relationship?"

_Go back to the old status quo, or be alone. Some choice,_ Ritsuko thought, sighing mentally. She knew she was just kidding herself.

It was no choice at all, so far as she was concerned.

"Yes," she said.

* * *

"'Welcome to my parlor,' said the spider to the fly," Klarion quoted to himself as he stood in the shadows, awaiting the arrival of his prey.

The old men on the SEELE council had _not_ been pleased when they'd learned that he'd summoned a great swarm of magical pests to the school because he was bored. Indeed, they'd made a great show out of making dire threats that had instantly killed any defiance within him. He wouldn't have thought they'd react in such a way to such a trifling incident, but the old bastards demanded obedience.

Indeed, he shuddered to think at how they might have reacted if he _hadn't_ made the discovery that Shinji Ikari might be the one they were looking for.

So now he was out here, working to confirm his suspicions. SEELE had informed him that they would send the Third Child a message, ordering him to go to NERV immediately. He would go and discover that it had been a false summon, of course, and then head back toward his home.

And Klarion would have his opportunity to pounce.

"Are you ready, Teekl?" the witchboy asked his constant companion, scratching the tabby cat's head.

The cat purred in response, prompting a grin from Klarion. Somehow, he thought that this would be enough fun to compensate for the boredom of having to wait for the Third Child to show up.

Teekl suddenly released a loud meow, and Klarion looked down from his perch at the street to see Shinji walking alone on the darkened sidewalk. It was almost show time.

He whispered some words to himself in a language that no ordinary human would understand, and darkness suddenly wrapped itself around his form like a cloak, turning him to a living shadow.

It wouldn't do for the Third Child to be able to identify him after this incident, of course.

Teekl meowed again. Klarion grinned and put a finger to his lips. "We'll get him, Teekl, don't you worry."

* * *

Shinji grumbled softly to himself as he made his way back toward the apartment, more annoyed than being mistakenly called to NERV warranted. The events of the past few days had been such a whirlwind that, when he'd gotten the rather urgent-sounding call telling him to report to headquarters immediately, he had completely believed that some new, incredibly important thing was about to happen. He'd gotten all worked up only to discover that someone had played a prank on him or something.

_It's not a big deal,_ he thought, trying to calm himself down. _Mistakes happen, after all, and it doesn't do anyone any good to…_

A high pitched, soft whistling sound pulled him from his thoughts, and the Third Child frowned, wondering what it could possibly be. He looked around…

And his eyes widened at what he saw. An orb of reddish light, looking like it might have been plucked right out of the bowels of hell, was flying through the air.

And it was coming _right for him_.

Releasing a wordless squawk of fear and surprise, the Third Child attempted to leap out of the path of the otherworldly projectile, only to have it change course so it continued to bear down on him. With a yelp, he turned on his heel and fled, attempting to outrun the deadly-looking thing.

_What the hell is going on recently? _Part of Shinji's mind wondered as he sprinted away. _First those things attack the school and now this?_

For the most part, however, he was too busy putting all his concentration into running as fast as he could. He could see the area around him illuminated by the bloody glow of the bizarre projectile that was following him, and he could hear its distinctive whining sound, so he knew he hadn't lost the thing.

He just didn't know how far away the thing was from him, exactly; it was impossible to judge without looking behind him.

Shinji told himself that he shouldn't do that. It would just slow him down. He should just put all his focus into running the hell away as fast as he could.

Someone else in his position would have found some dark humor in his sudden determination to run away after trying for so long to keep himself from doing exactly that whenever he became frightened. The irony escaped Shinji entirely, however.

Time seemed to become distorted as his fear caused the seconds to become minutes. His curiosity began to eat at him, until it became a physical need for him to know how far away the crimson orb of energy was from him.

His better judgment howling at him not to look, Shinji turned his head to see how much of a lead he had on the strange projectile.

And his foot caught on something.

The Third Child let out a yelp as he tripped, waving his arms around wildly in his futile attempt to prevent himself from pitching forward. In a moment, he had crashed painfully onto the sidewalk. Fear flooding his mind, he quickly rolled over so he could see the red orb approaching him.

He had just enough time to throw his arms up in an impotent attempt at shielding his head as the sphere of evil-looking red light crashed down upon him.

For a long time, Shinji didn't move. He didn't even breathe. He felt no pain, but so far as he could figure, that just meant that the thing hadn't hit him yet, or that he was already dead and just hadn't realized it.

Finally, after a very long moment, he lowered his arms and looked around, amazed at what he saw.

The sidewalk all around him was scorched black and steaming, even in the warm night air. Yet his clothing wasn't so much as singed, and he wasn't even particularly hot.

The little medallion Maya had given him seemed strangely warm against his chest, though, but Shinji didn't really notice that little detail with everything that was happening.

He was nearly recovered enough from the shock to get up and get moving again when he saw it approach. It was like inky black smoke had come together to form the shape of a person.

_Oh, I did _not_ sign up for this,_ he thought, scooting backwards away from the shadowy figure.

Then again, he hadn't exactly signed up to pilot EVA either, but that had happened, too.

"Get him," the living shadow whispered in a low growl.

A small brown shape suddenly emerged from beneath the shadow and went racing toward him. Before he could identify the creature in the dark, it rapidly began to grow and change in shape. Within seconds it had taken on a vaguely humanoid shape, and one that was distinctly feminine. However, the creature was anything but a human woman. It looked like an anthropomorphized feline from some nightmare, with coiled muscles bulging beneath its brown fur. Shinji felt sweat running down the side of his face as he took in the wicked claws the monstrosity wielded.

_I never thought I'd die like this,_ Shinji thought.

And, being a consummate pessimist in a very dangerous profession, he'd imagined quite a few unpleasant ways in which he could die.

The cat thing hissed at him, approaching the Third Child, the moonlight glinting off its dark claws. Shinji could only swallow and wait to be torn to ribbons as the monster loomed over him.

Then a mighty roar sounded from behind him, so loud that Shinji could feel the sound waves in his chest. The Third Child's head snapped to the side, and his eyes widened as he saw the new additions to the already bizarre scene.

A pair of white tigers had appeared in the street, and they were charging toward him at full speed. Shinji let out a little cry, wondering why giant feline was going to eat him first.

But then what was possibly the most bizarre incident of the night occurred. The two tigers ran right past him—the easy prey—like he wasn't even there, instead pouncing onto the half human-looking cat monster. It let out a high pitched shriek of indignation and pain as it was instantly knocked to the ground and pinned there.

Before the pair of tigers could tear into their foe, it again shifted and changed in shape and size, this time growing smaller. Shinji, curious despite himself, craned his neck in an attempt to see what it looked like when it shrank, but the creature was quickly hidden from view by the bodies of the two tigers. Its reduced size allowing it to slip from its captors' grasp, the thing ran away, moving so quickly that it was nothing more than a brown blur to Shinji's eye. It quickly disappeared into the shadows, and the Third Child abruptly realized that the dark, ominous figure from before was gone.

Leaving him all alone with the tigers.

_Out of the frying pan…_ Shinji thought as the rare white predators turned to draw near and regard him. He could feel their hot breath on his face.

"M-Make it quick," he pleaded nervously to the tigers, resigned to being eaten by jungle predators in the middle of a major city.

One of them licked him, its long, bristly tongue leaving a large wet trail across his face. Shinji blinked stupidly at it.

Then the tigers just disappeared, bursting into sparkling dust which vanished entirely before it touched the ground.

The sound of rapid footfalls could suddenly be heard behind him, and Shinji quickly turned, bracing himself for something else strange and terrifying. Instead, he got a quick glimpse of a very shapely, fishnet stocking-clad leg as its owner retreated into the shadows. He was able to get a good enough look at the woman's profile to see that she seemed to be wearing a top hat, of all things. Then she disappeared from view entirely and was gone, finally leaving Shinji truly alone.

"No one is _ever_ going to believe this," Shinji said, then he released a rather crazed sounding little giggle that surprised him.

The sound of running feet alerted him to the approach of someone else. Feeling almost too overwhelmed to be worried about who it might be, he looked up to see that Section Two was finally making an appearance.

_Better late than never, I guess,_ he thought.

"Pilot Ikari, are you all right?" one of the black-suited men asked.

Shinji had a hard time resisting the urge to emit another of those insane giggles. It took him a few seconds to regain his composure.

"I'd like to go home now," he said when he was finally sure he'd gotten himself under control.

* * *

Watching from the shadows as Section Two escorted Shinji away, Zatanna could only sigh softly.

"I hope I did the right thing," she whispered, before she continued on her way.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** For some reason, this chapter seemed to take forever to write, and I'm not terribly thrilled with it. Bah.

Anyway, the Oblivion Bar is not my invention, but a fairly well established part of the DCU. Kahndaqi Sprites are my creation, but the fictional country of Kahndaq is not. If Maya's decision to fight Klarion from the shadows—literally—strikes you as odd, remember that she didn't have much time to think it over, and that she's _very_ reluctant to confront the agent of SEELE head on.

And…that's about all I have for the author's notes. So, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.

Now for some fun.

* * *

Omake

Hot Times in the Oblivion Bar

She had known, of course, that the Ninth Age of Magic had ended when Second Impact had hit, and that the lives of many magical beings had ended with it. However, she would have expected that their numbers would have increased significantly, now that the world was more than a decade into the Tenth Age.

The computer technician knew it shouldn't mean anything to her, but she found herself saddened to discover how few _Homo Magi_ were apparently around all the same.

There was one fortunate effect of the sparseness of the crowd, though; it made it very easy for Zatanna to determine who was there and who wasn't.

And she was very surprised to see who was there.

"Hello," Zatanna greeted one of the other patrons, sitting down on a stool next to hers. "I had no idea that Kent Nelson had appointed someone to succeed him as Dr. Fate."

The attractive woman in the golden helm turned to regard Zatanna, and though only her eyes were visible, Zatanna still got the impression that the new Dr. Fate was smiling at her.

"Ah, I know who you are," Dr. Fate said. "You're that technician who's been so kind to my Shinji-kun."

Zatanna blinked. That a sorceress as powerful as Fate could divine her identity wasn't _that_ shocking, even if it was a little disturbing to know that someone had figured out who was behind her mask before she'd even met her. But why was Dr. Fate referring to the Third Child as "my Shinji-kun"?

"Um, I'm sorry, but I don't think we've been properly introduced," Zatanna said awkwardly.

"Oh, sorry," Dr. Fate said, reaching up and grabbing her helmet.

She took the golden helm, revealing, to Zatanna's amazement, that she was none other than the late Yui Ikari.

"Oh, this doesn't make _any_ sense," the confused magician said.

"It's an omake, dear. It doesn't have to," Yui said. "Now, why don't you relax and let me buy you a drink?"

"Well—"

"Great!" Yui said. "Hey, barkeep!"

The bartender obediently came over and immediately produced two shot glasses, filling both of them with hard liquor.

"Bottoms up!" Yui said, quickly gulping down the shot and then calling for more.

Zatanna could only watch with wide eyes, not even touching her own glass, as Yui began to consume alcohol at a very impressive rate.

* * *

_Two hours later…_

"I can't believe what I'm seeing," Zatanna said softly to herself, her words carrying not at all amid the catcalls and whistles from the bar's male patrons. "What would Kent Nelson say if he knew that his successor was doing this?"

Shaking her head, Zatanna turned and looked at Yui Ikari, who was dancing on one of the tables and belting out the lyrics of a shanty that would have made most sailors blush. She had totally forgotten about her golden helmet, which probably would have been stolen by one of the other patrons if Zatanna hadn't decided to guard it.

Suddenly, Yui snapped her fingers, and a pole that stretched up to the ceiling materialized from the exact center of the table the sorceress stood on. Yui grabbed hold of the pole, and suddenly her dancing took on a far more…charnel nature.

_Whoa…_ Zatanna thought, amazed at the way the more mature woman's body was gyrating.

Much as she might have disliked to admit it, the drunken woman's dirty dancing was really, _really_ hot.

The magician's jaw suddenly dropped as Yui rapidly began to shed clothing, and she sat stock still in her amazement. She didn't even flinch when the other woman's bra landed right on her head.

"Whoa," she said aloud this time, then noticed that a thin trail of blood was coming from her nose. Quickly grabbing a napkin and wiping her face off, she immediately turned her attention back to Yui.

"Wow," Zatanna said. "So _this_ is why the Commander wanted her back so bad."


	7. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Six:** A (Not So) Quiet Afternoon

Klarion Bleak had been born with a soul that loved mischief. At least, that's what was said about him in his home of Limbo Town, the underground civilization where the descendants of the citizens from the lost colony of Roanoke lived. His long suffering mother privately thought the disappearance of his father when Klarion was a very young child might have had something to do with the boy's apparent need to break the rules and get himself into trouble on a regular basis.

In truth, it was a combination of these two factors, as well as Klarion simply being too curious and smart for his own good. The witch boy had reasoned that there had to be _something_ above the ceiling to the only world he had known... and in truth, he'd only needed an excuse to go and try to find just what that was.

That excuse had come in spades, when Klarion had broken into the home of Submissionary Judah, one of Limbo Town's most powerful spiritual leaders, to have himself a look around. He'd been caught studying certain magical tomes that were forbidden to nearly everyone in Limbo Town, and certainly to a witch boy like himself.

When Judah had ordered him burned at the stake, Klarion had decided that was as good a reason to run away from home as he would ever find. Escaping from the cell he'd been thrown in (and stealing Judah's symbol of power, the Submissionary's rod, just for good measure), the witch boy had had struck out upwards through the tunnels of the only world he'd known. He'd eventually ended up in a subway tunnel, and from there, had finally made it to the world above.

However, not long after that, a SEELE that was desperate for new agents with magical powers had learned about him and then "conscripted" him.

Once that had happened, everything was, as they say, history.

History which had led him to his current position, standing in a circle of light in the middle of an otherwise pitch dark-room, facing a giant holographic domino which was labeled as "SEELE 01".

Klarion resisted the urge to roll his eyes. All these fronts were so foolish; he knew perfectly well that Chairman Keel lurked behind the avatar. However, he didn't dare call the old man on it. Instead, he obediently told Keel how his attempt at ambushing the younger Ikari had gone.

Once Klarion had finished his tale, Keel was silent for a long moment.

"Is this the truth?" he asked finally, his voice heavily distorted, another stupid measure to conceal his identity.

Klarion glared at the holographic monolith, obviously wishing the man behind it nothing but ill fortune. "Yes," he said.

"So it would seem that Shinji Ikari is not the person we're looking for," Keel mused aloud. "More likely he is somehow under the true meddler's protection."

"Or he's merely pretending to be inept," Klarion suggested, more out of a desire to be contrary than from an urge to be helpful. "He wouldn't be the first sorcerer to hide behind obfuscating stupidity."

"Hmm," Keel grunted thoughtfully. "We need to know. Our errant magician is a dangerous X-factor in this scenario and must be neutralized."

"What do you wish for me to do exactly?" Klarion asked. "Attack him again and see what happens this time?"

"More than that," Keel said. "I want you to capture him and bring him before us."

"Very well," Klarion agreed.

The witch boy made ready to leave the virtual meeting room, but Keel's voice stopped him. "Bleak?"

"What?" Klarion asked, not bothering to conceal the annoyance in his voice.

"Do not kill the Third Child," Keel said. "He has his part to play yet. I don't want him removed from the scenario unless he really is our troublesome sorcerer. And even then, I'd prefer to avoid killing him. He could still be useful."

"_Fine_," Klarion replied, with the sort of gusty, exasperated sigh that was apparently universal to teenagers.

He didn't really care if Shinji lived or died, but he had grown powerfully sick of being so tightly controlled.

"Take this seriously, Bleak," Keel warned, his tone menacing. "You know what will happen if you disobey me."

The witch boy didn't reply. He just glared at Keel's avatar, as though trying to bore a hole through it with his gaze alone.

The Chairman clearly felt the need to make it clear, even though Klarion knew quite well what the consequences would be if he became more of a hindrance than a help to the old man and his mysterious plans.

"If you disobey me, I will order a bunker-busting nuclear missile to be launched at your home," Keel said. "Even as deep underground as it is, Limbo Town will be annihilated."

Klarion had scoffed at this threat the first time the leader of SEELE had made it, assuming no mere bomb could possibly be so destructive.

Then Keel had shown him footage from atomic bomb tests. Klarion had been shocked at the destructive might of the weapon, and, according to Keel, that had been from a test performed very long ago. Modern nuclear arms were supposedly far more powerful.

Part of Klarion so despised being under the Chairman's heel that he wanted to just let Limbo Town burn. After all, _they_ had been perfectly willing to burn _him_.

But, no, he couldn't do that. He _could_ cheerfully allow Judah to be flash-roasted, but more people than the old Submissionary lived in his old home town. His mother was still there, along with his sister, and his stepfather.

"I won't disobey," Klarion said.

"Good," Keel replied. "Now go."

With a soft whisper of sound, the witch boy vanished from the virtual meeting room. Moments later, eleven other monoliths joined that of Chairman Keel. The holographic avatars formed a large circle.

"So, there he goes," SEELE Five said sourly. "Do you really believe he'll succeed?"

"If the Ikari boy isn't the magician we're looking for, Bleak's efforts will flush his protector out of hiding," Keel replied.

"More to the point, can he be trusted?" SEELE Two asked. "Your threat is obviously an empty one. You would have to get the German government to launch a nuclear attack against the United States to carry it out. Even assuming you could do it, the repercussions of such an action…"

"Would be massive, and impossible to fully predict. Yes, I'm well aware of that," Keel said curtly. "I have no intention of attacking America just to spite the boy if he disobeys, but he has no way of knowing that. He spent most of his life in a cave—literally. When I don't have him on assignment, it's all too easy to get him to spend his time playing video games and eating candy. He has no way of knowing how great the repercussions of nuking his home would be for us."

"Let us hope he never bothers to find out," SEELE Two said darkly.

* * *

The test plugs had never felt quite the same to Shinji as the actual entry plugs, though he had absolutely no idea why. The things were completely indistinguishable from the inside, and he experienced the same sensation that something was tugging at his brain while he was in either one. And, of course, LCL didn't smell or taste any better in the entry plug than it did in the test plug.

Indeed, oftentimes he told himself that his preference for the entry plug was just his mind playing tricks on him. If he was blindfolded and taken to the test plug, then told it was the entry plug, he probably wouldn't have any idea he was being tricked.

Except that he knew he would. For whatever bizarre reason, he always felt very safe and comfortable while nestled in the middle of Unit One—provided, of course, that he was just participating in some test and not actually going into combat at the time. The test plug just didn't provide that same feeling.

Yet despite being in the test plug rather than the entry plug, Shinji thought the sync test he was currently doing was going very well. The mental connection seemed very smooth that day, almost effortless.

So when Misato announced that the test was over, Shinji was, for once, eager to know how he did, and asked what his test scores were.

The Operations Director's expression went sour, and Shinji was suddenly sure that, despite how well he'd thought he'd done, his results had actually been abysmal.

"We're… instituting a new policy today, Shinji-kun," Misato told him. "From now on, we won't be giving you your scores right here. Instead, you'll be able to get them by logging into your MAGI accounts."

Shinji blinked. He had been issued a MAGI user name and password when he'd gotten his permanent NERV ID card, but he'd rarely had any reason to use it. In fact, he could barely remember what his password was.

He was just about to ask about the reason for this new policy when a communications window displaying Asuka appeared on his HUD, and the Second Child asked the question for him in a much more… assertive manner than he would have.

"Why the hell won't you just tell us our scores?" she demanded.

Misato scowled. "We're not keeping _your_ scores from you," she said. "You can go and check them just as soon as you get out of the test plug and change. In fact, I encourage you to do just that. I want you to be focused on _your_ scores."

Asuka actually looked taken aback by the pointed remark, and the communications window snapped shut abruptly.

Though rather curious about the reason for the new protocol himself, Shinji wasn't eager to question it after Misato had so deftly fended off Asuka's demands. So he shrugged and contented himself to waiting a while before he found out his score.

* * *

Up in the control room, Misato switched off the microphone, closing the channel with the pilots. Now that she could no longer be seen or heard by her subordinates, she huffed, crossed her arms, and plopped down into one the vacant seats by the control panels.

"Aw, you look almost as petulant as Asuka feels," Ritsuko teased the pouting officer.

"It's not fair!" Misato said. "The instant we institute this new policy, Shinji leaps ahead in the scores, and I can't even congratulate him."

She glanced at Maya as she finished speaking, and even though the Operations Director's gaze wasn't particularly accusatory, the techie couldn't help but wince slightly. "I'm sorry," she blurted out.

Really, it had seemed like a good idea when she'd suggested it. Maya had been present for nearly every sync test the three Children had taken together, and the way things proceeded once the tests completed had long ago become very familiar and tiring to her.

There were two basic variations to the post-test scene. If Shinji had done poorly, Asuka gloated about how much better she was. If Shinji did well, Asuka got angry about it, and made a point of loudly reminding everyone how great her lead over him in the scores (which had been steadily dwindling) remained.

Asuka was left in a bad mood half the time, and Shinji suffered no matter what happened. Rei was the only pilot who was always unaffected by what happened.

"Don't apologize, Maya," Ritsuko spoke up. "The logic of the idea is just as sound today as it was yesterday. Maybe better, in fact. I can't imagine that Asuka would be too pleased about the news."

The Ops Director grumbled something that might have been a reluctant agreement.

A wicked grin formed on Ritsuko's face. "Misato's just overeager to be the bearer of good news," the bottle blonde said. "Her sense has been overridden by her desire to applaud her boyfriend for his accomplishments."

"Shut your face!" Misato barked.

Maya jumped at the sound of the loud exclamation.

Ritsuko didn't, much to Misato's annoyance.

* * *

Only about twenty minutes later Shinji Ikari was sitting before a computer within the NERV base. The Third Child's hair was still damp from the hasty shower he'd taken to rinse off the LCL from the test, and he was trying to get into his MAGI account with a level of impatience that surprised him.

He thought he'd done really well for once, and he just wanted to confirm it, but he was having trouble getting in. He'd forgotten the password NERV had given him, because he hadn't had any actual use for his MAGI account until now.

And worse, Shinji was pretty sure that if he made another attempt and entered the wrong password _yet again_, the system would lock him out for a full 24 hours.

He had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn't really care all that much about his scores, come tomorrow.

Resigning himself to being barred from the MAGI network for a day, Shinji sighed softly and punched in what he thought was his password one more time.

He actually started in surprise when the computer let out a cheerful little chime, indicating that he had gained access to the system. Thus jolted from his glum reverie, Shinji hurriedly began to try and figure out how he could get at his sync test results.

This proved to be very easy and intuitive; it would have surprised Shinji not one iota to have discovered that Maya had personally programmed in the new feature. He clicked on the appropriate icon, causing a window displaying his test results to pop up.

Shinji blinked at the sight of them, at first thinking that there had to be some kind of mistake. However, as he continued to study the numbers, he couldn't see any obvious signs of an error.

_Wow…_

He _had_ done well. In fact, he'd done _really_ well.

Shinji leaned back in the cheap office chair where he currently sat, feeling a strange mixture of dumb shock and a rare burst of pride in his recent accomplishment.

Then he heard the sound of footsteps from behind himself.

On impulse, Shinji quickly moved to close the window that displayed his test results. If he'd allowed himself a moment to think the action through, instead of just reacting, he probably wouldn't have rushed to keep himself from being seen doing something as innocuous as checking his scores.

However, it was probably for the best that he did.

"Hey there, Shinji!" Asuka said, sounding just a tad too cheerful, leaning in to look over his shoulder.

The Third Child stiffened at the abrupt and unexpected close proximity of the German redhead. If she lowered her head a few inches, her chin would come to rest on his shoulder.

When she saw nothing interesting on his screen, however, she quickly pulled back, allowing Shinji to relax a little.

"About to check your scores?" Asuka asked, and even the Third Child noticed that her casual tone sounded a little forced.

"I just did," he answered.

"And?" she asked.

Shinji knew only too well what would happen if he told the truth and reported just how well he'd done that day, so it was with no guilt whatsoever that he lied through his teeth to his fellow pilot.

"Not so good. I dropped a few points," he said, looking down at the floor and appearing appropriately downcast.

It was something he'd gotten a lot of practice at over the years.

The rather brittle smile that Asuka had plastered onto her face suddenly became a lot more genuine. Some tension that Shinji hadn't even noticed until it was gone left her stance.

"Sorry to hear that, Third," Asuka said, obviously being as insincere as Shinji had just been. "I guess not even the invincible Shinji can win big every time."

"I guess not," Shinji agreed.

Asuka turned and walked off then, humming cheerfully to herself. Shinji allowed himself to slump slightly in relief. He'd definitely dodged a bullet there.

* * *

The next day found both the Third Child and the technician who had made it possible for him to evade the redhead's wrath involved in far more pleasant pursuits than a synchronization test. The two of them were currently outside the city limits, Maya having decided to move their tutoring session out of her apartment that day.

Taking a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, the brunette thought that she would have patted herself on the back for coming up with the idea, if only she could reach. Not only was the change of scenery nice, but it kept Shinji away from the prying eyes of Mrs. Takanawa. Her elderly (and perpetually nosy) neighbor had long ago decided that Maya's relationship with the teenage boy who always seemed to be calling on her simply _couldn't_ be purely platonic. Hopefully, the seemingly greater length of time between Shinji's last visit and his next one would cause the old bat to lose interest in the whole affair.

_And maybe pigs will fly,_ Maya thought.

She quickly squashed this bit of pessimism, accurate though it probably was, and focused on the pleasant day she had before her. After the mass amounts of insanity she had been enduring, not to mention the usual work schedule at NERV which no longer gave her anything like the satisfaction it once had, their little trip looked like nothing less than a miniature vacation to her.

"Not that I'm complaining," Shinji said quietly as he lugged the large basket which contained their lunch, "but why did we have to come out here for a tutoring session?"

Maya had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. It was very clear that the Third Child _was_ indeed complaining, or at least wanted to, but he was too afraid of offending her to be upfront about it.

However, she forced a smile onto her face as she turned to him. "Some lessons just can't be taught in a little apartment like mine," she said. "Besides, I thought you might like to get out of the city for a little while."

The ghost of a smirk appeared on Shinji's face for just a moment, causing Maya to frown with confusion.

"What?" she asked.

Looking abashed, Shinji averted his gaze from her. "Oh, well, the last time someone said something to me like that, we were going to rendezvous with the fleet bringing Asuka to Japan, and we were fighting the Sixth Angel about an hour later."

"Oh," Maya said with a small smile, "well, today's going to be a lot less eventful than that."

"Good," Shinji replied.

The two made their way a little further, until they found a spot that Maya deemed perfect for them. There was a large patch of thick green grass where they could sit and be comfortable, but also a rocky area close by which was suitable for some of the things Maya had planned.

"This looks like a good place," the techie proclaimed.

Shinji was only too happy to set down the basket which contained their lunch. Maya had asked him to bring the food, but she hadn't thought he'd bring nearly so much as he apparently had. She privately wondered if he had been overzealous about the task because he was trying too hard to please, or if it was because his teenage appetite was much more prodigious than his thin frame suggested.

"So what do we do first?" Shinji asked.

"I'm not that hungry yet," Maya said. "What about you?"

"I'm fine with waiting," Shinji answered, with no trace of dishonesty for her sake that she could detect.

"All right, I guess that's settled," Maya said, a smile on her face. "Science first."

She set down her own basket and began to take out a few things, and while a few of them were food items, she wouldn't want to eat any of them for lunch.

When Shinji had told her a while ago that he would like some tutoring in chemistry instead of physics now, if she wouldn't mind, Maya had been delighted. Like a lot of the individuals who had chosen a scientific career, the brunette had spent many an hour playing with chemicals when she was younger. She'd been cautious enough to prevent any unpleasant effects, smart and well-read enough to produce a few spectacular ones, and had generally had quite a lot of fun at it.

"Okay, so the basic idea behind chemical reactions is very simple," Maya said. "Two separate substances create a new compound. Sometimes, it's enough for the two original substances to come into contact with one another."

Popping the top off of a very big jug of cheap vinegar, Maya introduced a healthy portion of baking soda to the mixture, and then quickly stepped back. Predictably, the mixture that had powered a countless number of model volcanoes over the years erupted rather dramatically, spraying white foam in all directions.

Shinji smiled slightly at the display, to Maya's relief. She had been afraid he might find the very common trick to be worthy only of a roll of his eyes. She would have been very surprised to know that Shinji had never made a mess of his uncle's kitchen even once with the same experiment.

"Of course," Maya said, removing two bottles of diet Sprite from her basket, "not all chemical reactions are nearly as energetic as that one. For instance…"

Uncapping one of the diet Sprite bottles, she dropped a small piece of green candy inside. It quickly sank to the bottom, and a few bubbles formed around it after a span of several seconds had passed.

"The candy and the soda are reacting to form a gas, carbon dioxide, I believe," Maya said. "But as you can see, _this_ reaction isn't moving quite so quickly. _But…_"

She picked up a roll of Mentos. "These candies are made from the same stuff as the other one, but you'll notice that they're not smooth like it is. Instead, they're kind of bumpy. That means there's a much greater surface area where the reaction can take place."

She dropped a few Mentos into the other bottle of Sprite, and a moment later, soda erupted out of the top in a high pressure jet. Shinji actually let out a small chuckle, clearly amused by the display.

The day continued on for them in this manner for over an hour. Maya burned various different metals to show him the strange colors the flames would have, then used a strip of one of her those as a metal wick to set a pile of tang mixture on fire atop a large flat rock. Shinji watched with interest as it sparked enthusiastically, eventually all of it turning completely black before it stopped. Then, seemingly for the hell of it, Maya rigged up a small and fairly weak bomb from a few of the items she'd brought in her basket, and the blew it up at a distance using a very long fuse. The Third Child actually laughed delightedly at the explosion, making the brunette think there might be a normal teenage boy inside of Shinji yet.

And the whole time, Maya continued to lecture him about one scientific principle or another, until Shinji had felt that, despite how entertaining the display the techie had put on was, he had learned more that day than he would have in a month of classes at school.

The makeshift bomb (which Maya had made a point of _not_ letting Shinji know the recipe for) proved to be the last of her tricks, however. With her unusual lesson completed, Maya packed away her things, and then it was time for lunch.

Shinji quickly spread a large blanket over the soft grass, then began to take out the food he'd brought. Maya was impressed by the spread; she had expected convenience store fare from the teenage boy, but the food Shinji laid out was clearly home made. Indeed, it looked better than anything Maya had had the time or the energy to prepare for herself lately. The Third Child had obviously gone to a lot of effort over the meal.

"This is really good, Shinji," Maya said after she had sampled a few bites.

"Oh, it's nothing really," Shinji said modestly.

The tech normally might have disagreed with him, but she was too busy eating to argue over the point. Shinji seemed to have brought quite a lot of food at first, but she found that she had little difficulty making her share of it disappear. She hadn't realized how hungry she'd gotten while doing her little science show (which had been far more pleasurable to perform than a magic show, in her opinion).

"Oooh, I don't care what you say about your own cooking, Shinji," Maya proclaimed as she set her chopsticks down, "that was really good."

Shinji blushed a little and stammered out a 'thank you', but Maya barely noticed. The brunette was feeling sleepy after eating so much. She placed a hand over her full stomach, thinking ruefully that she shouldn't make a habit of eating like that, unless she found some time in her already overcrowded schedule to exercise more.

_A few more meals like that and I won't be able to fit into my costume,_ she thought, feeling too stuffed and contented to really care all that about that much at the moment.

"So, are we going to head back now?" Shinji asked tentatively after he'd packed up all the now empty containers he'd brought their lunch in, apparently noticing that Maya was making no move to leave, or even get off the blanket he'd brought for them to sit on.

The techie checked her wristwatch. "We still have plenty of time before we need to be back," she said. "And it's so much cooler out here than in the city. Let's stay here for a little while."

And, without giving Shinji a chance to protest, she lay back on the blanket, knitting her fingers together and pillowing her head on her hands. Her eyes drooped half closed as she gazed up at the crystal blue sky, which was dotted with puffy white clouds.

Shinji blinked at her, rather surprised. Then he shrugged and leaned back, not laying down next to her but propping himself up on his arms.

Time passed, Maya wasn't sure how much. She was soon half dozing beneath the warm sun, enjoying the cool breeze that blew over the area. She had expected to immediately fall asleep for an afternoon nap, but despite how drowsy she was, she couldn't quite make the transition from the waking world to the land of dreams.

It was probably the teenage boy sitting not three feet away from her, she mused. Though she knew he would never _dare_ to try anything inappropriate with a sleeping woman, even if his morals allowed it, she still couldn't quite bring herself to relax enough to actually sleep. She contented herself with dozing.

_He's looking at my legs,_ she noted with a small smirk, still easily able to see him from her vantage point on the ground.

It was no real surprise that a bored teenaged boy's eyes should start wandering, she supposed, and this wasn't the first time she'd caught him sneaking a peek. He'd often glance at her legs when she was wearing shorts (which she was now) and when he thought she wasn't looking.

_Just my luck,_ Maya thought ruefully. _Lots of men were practically falling all over themselves for Zatanna's attention when I was performing on the street, but the only one who's interested in me when I'm being myself is Shinji._

She looked at him fondly through her sleepy haze, realizing that he was probably the closest thing she had to a friend right now. She had thoroughly buried herself in her work in recent years, and she had been satisfied with it. Now that she was no longer taking anything like the same level of pleasure from her job, however, her life was starting to feel very empty, despite how busy being given the minor task of saving the world had left her. Even if she did sometimes find Shinji's extremely passive nature a little annoying, she had to admit that she looked forward to the days when he came for tutoring from her. They helped to relieve her loneliness somewhat.

_And he's kind of cute for a younger man, especially when he actually smiles._

_That_ thought instantly jolted her out of her pleasant state of drowsiness, and she abruptly sat bolt upright, startling Shinji.

"Are you all right, Maya?" asked the young man.

_Boy!_ Maya thought. _He's just a boy! You're not _that_ hard up for a date, girl!_

"I'm fine, Shinji. I just fell asleep and had a nightmare," she lied, rubbing her eyes. "How long has it been?"

"About half an hour," he answered.

"Well, I don't think I'm going to be able to get back to sleep now," the brunette said. "And I'll bet you're bored of sitting in the middle in the nowhere while I decide to be lazy."

"It's no big deal, really," Shinji said.

Maya smiled wanly at him. "Shinji-kun, you're a nice boy, and you'd still be a nice boy even if you didn't let people walk all over you all the time," she said gently.

"But I really don't mind!" Shinji protested. "It's nice out here. Besides…you've seemed so tired so often lately, I wouldn't have the heart to disturb you."

What Maya did next, she did against her better judgment, but at the moment she just couldn't help herself. Leaning in close to Shinji, she placed a quick kiss on the boy's forehead before he could react to her movements.

The Third Child immediately blushed so deeply that his face was almost purple, and his eyes bugged out comically. Maya had to suppress the urge to laugh.

"You're very sweet, Shinji-kun," Maya said. "I think you should probably worry about making yourself happy more often, instead of trying to please everyone else all the time, but I appreciate your consideration, anyway."

Shinji tried to make some kind of reply. He even opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. The Third Child was forced to settle for a small nod.

Maya turned to her basket, pretending to inspect the contents but really just doing it to hide the smirk she could no longer repress.

_I don't think I've ever had quite such an extreme effect on a man,_ she mused. _And if I have, it certainly wasn't with so little effort._

"Well, in any case, I don't think there's much point in us just hanging around here anymore," Maya said, now having managed to school her features into a more neutral expression. "Let's go, Shinji-kun. Since you made such a nice lunch for us, I'll treat you to a little dessert once we're back in the city."

She had a feeling that Shinji might have liked to protest, to tell her that it wasn't necessary for her to do that, but the Third Child still hadn't regained the power of speech. The brunette started heading down the path that would lead to where they'd left her car, and Shinji followed wordlessly.

* * *

The Third Child's head was still spinning (albeit pleasantly) by the time Maya was pulling back onto the city's streets. His motor controls weren't impaired, and neither was his judgment, but he actually felt drunk.

Or least, he felt the way he imagined being drunk felt. Shinji had never been hammered, or even slightly tipsy, in his life.

_This is ridiculous,_ he told himself.

And indeed, it was. The quick peck Maya had given him hadn't exactly been passionate or romantic in nature. If anything, the gesture had been almost motherly, but that didn't change the fact that the place where she'd kissed him still felt warm and tingly.

This was…new to him. If there was anything Shinji prided himself on, it was that he wasn't that guy who was always lusting after the current pop star, actress, or model. Unlike his two best friends, he didn't drool over his very attractive but slovenly guardian who was twice his age.

He didn't fall for women he couldn't have (which, in his estimation, was pretty much all of them, but that was neither here nor there).

So he couldn't be having feelings for Maya.

At least, that's what he told himself, but his still fluttering heart begged to differ. He glanced at Maya, not looking directly at her for fear of being caught staring.

_She _is_ pretty_, he thought wistfully, allowing himself a brief fantasy about how nice it would be if it was actually possible for the two of them to become an item, and they did.

_Yeah, right,_ a nasty little voice whispered from the back of his mind. _Maya's your tutor, and she's only that much because she pities you. Once she feels confident you won't flunk out of junior high school, she will be _gone_, and she'll probably be damned relieved that the ordeal is over with._

He frowned at that. He had really gotten used to his tutoring sessions with the technician and had come to enjoy them quite a bit; they were like little islands of calm and quiet in the often chaotic and stormy sea his life had become since arriving at Tokyo-3. He didn't like to think the kind young woman would cheerfully end their teacher/student relationship as soon as possible, but it did seem pretty plausible when he thought about it. He was probably assuming he'd become more important to her than he had, because he was finding himself getting attached to her.

Before he could manage to recollect his thoughts, Maya brought the car to a stop. Shinji silently got out and followed her into the small ice cream parlor. It was empty at this hour, save for the owner, who was a plump, middle aged man wearing a short sleeved, button up shirt of pristine white and plain black pants.

"Well, if it isn't Maya," he observed with a smile. "It's been a while since I've seen you here last."

She gave him an apologetic smile. "My life's been pretty…chaotic lately, Koichi," she said.

The man's expression turned almost grim for a moment. "I can imagine," he said, clearly thinking of the Angel battles which had plagued the city lately.

Then his features smoothed out, and he was again as cheerful as one would expect a man who sells ice cream for a living to be. "Well, what can I get for you and your…friend?"

Maya smiled. "This is Shinji Ikari, a co-worker of mine. Shinji, this is Koichi, owner and operator of Koichi's Corner Creamery."

The jolly man frowned in confusion at Shinji for a second, then comprehension dawned. He bowed as deeply as his large belly would allow him to, until Shinji could see the sun streaming in from the storefront window reflecting off the top of his bald head. "I am honored to have you in my humble shop, Shinji Ikari-san," he said formally.

"Pleased to meet you," Shinji responded in a quiet voice, feeling deeply uncomfortable in the face of the older man's display.

"Koichi here has helped me get through many a tough day," Maya spoke up, breaking the moment of tension.

The big man straightened up and smiled. "So, what would you like? The usual?"

"I'll just have a frozen yogurt. Vanilla. I've already taken in too many calories today as it is," Maya said ruefully.

"And you, Ikari-san?"

Shinji was prepared to ask for the smallest, plainest ice cream cone the man sold, very conscious that Maya had said she was paying for this. However, being addressed as "Ikari-san" by someone so much older than he was threw him for a loop, and he hesitated.

Maya was quick to seize the moment. "I think he needs to try one of your famous banana splits," she suggested.

"Coming right up!" Koichi said.

Shinji raised a hand, about to tell the man to stop, that he didn't want something so big or elaborate. However, the plump gentlemen disappeared behind the counter before he could say a thing, and the words died unspoken.

Maya put a hand on his shoulder. "Let's go have a seat," she said.

Giving up, Shinji allowed himself to be led to a comfortable booth. He took a moment to look around the old but well maintained establishment. "This is a nice place," he commented quietly.

Small businesses like the ice cream parlor where they currently resided were rare in Tokyo-3, and only becoming rarer. As the war progressed and more people left, the only shops that were left behind were the ones run by big corporations that were willing to take risks for the sake of profiteering. Many of the big companies, having trouble finding people willing to work in their Tokyo-3 stores for low wages, had invested in the technology to create fully automated places of business. Thus, the arcade that Shinji often visited with his friends, Maya's regular Laundromat, and several other establishments in the city were devoid of human workers.

"I was thrilled when I found it," Maya told Shinji. "I thought for sure that this place would be gone in the space of a month after the Third Angel showed up, but old Koichi's a lot more stubborn than you might expect. He has unbelievable luck, too. The building that used to be right next to this one was completely leveled during the Second Battle of Tokyo-3, but Koichi's front window wasn't even broken."

Shinji blinked. He hadn't realized that they were in the neighborhood where he had fought the Fourth Angel. But, of course, the city looked a bit different from inside Unit One.

The silence stretched on for several moments as the Third Child tried to process the fact that he'd only barely just avoided destroying the nice little ice cream parlor where he and his tutor currently sat. Maya didn't break it, instead taking out a coin and starting to toy with it idly. Shinji watched with growing interest as the small disk of metal seemed to disappear and reappear repeatedly between her fingers.

"How do you do that?" he asked.

"Hmm?" Maya asked, before seeming to realize what she was doing. "Oh, this is just a sleight of hand. Probably one of the oldest magic tricks there is. It's basically the same thing used for the old cliché I showed you before."

She abruptly reached over to him, and Shinji reflexively began to flinch back. Before he could go very far, however, she appeared to pluck the coin from behind his ear. The EVA pilot relaxed and released a brief chuckle.

"Here, this is how it's done," she said, moving her hand and performing the original trick again, the new angle allowing Shinji to see what exactly she was doing.

"Can I try?" he asked.

"Be my guest," Maya said, handing over the coin.

Shinji carefully placed it between two of his fingers, just like she had, then tried to execute the trick. However, it soon fell to the tabletop with a metallic jingle.

"Guess I'm not very good," he said.

"It just takes practice," Maya said kindly, "and some fairly graceful fingers, which I'm sure you have. You're a musician aren't you?"

Shinji frowned. "How did you know that?"  
She took one of his hands in both of hers and gently opened his fingers, turning his palm upwards. "You have calluses," Maya observed. "That's a musician's hand. Strings, right?"

Shinji didn't answer, mainly because he couldn't. The Third Child had suddenly become bizarrely hyper-aware of her hands holding his. Maya's hands, he noted, were soft, dainty, and small. Smaller than his hands, even. And warm, yes, very warm indeed.

The brunette looked up as his hesitation drew out, and Shinji felt even more mortified; he was certain that he was blushing by now. Her warm brown eyes met his blue ones, and he saw only confusion in them, for the moment. Soon, though, realization would follow.

He didn't want to consider what would come after that.

Disgust, probably.

"All right, you two, here's your order!" the jolly proclamation of Koichi mercifully broke the awkward moment. Shinji quickly pulled his hand back. Maya did likewise.

"Thanks, Koichi," Maya said, taking some money from her wallet and holding it out to him.

The big man waved the offered cash away. "On the house," he said.

"Oh, no, we couldn't," Maya protested.

"Nonsense, of course you can," Koichi said nonchalantly, then turned to Shinji and added in a conspiratorial tone. "Between you and me, I never liked the people in the place that used to be next to mine. They made a habit of throwing their garbage out into my trashcans." He winked at Shinji, then walked off, leaving the pilot and the technician alone.

Shinji gawked at the heavy man's retreating back. While a little gratitude was nice, being thanked for destroying someone's property struck him as more than a little perverse.

"If you don't eat that soon, it'll start to melt," Maya said to him as she dug her spoon into her small cup of frozen yogurt.

The Third Child looked down at his own ice cream and was immediately taken aback by it. Three enormous scoops of ice cream lay on his dish, topped by whipped cream, hot fudge, crushed nuts, maraschino cherries, bits of pineapple, and sprinkles. The bananas in the banana split almost seemed like an afterthought.

"I won't be able to eat all this," he said.

Maya smiled coyly. "If you can't finish, I can help."

Shinji frowned. "But didn't you say that you wanted to eat lightly because of how much you had at lunch?" he reminded her.

The techie's expression suddenly changed to one of mingled annoyance and amusement. "Honestly, Shinji," she huffed, "has living with two women taught you nothing?"

"I'm sorry," he said at once, not entirely sure what he was apologizing for.

* * *

If there was anything on this strange world above the world Klarion had known—this bizarre and fantastic place of blue rafters—that the witch boy felt he would never truly grow accustomed to, it was the light. There had been great amounts of phosphorescent stone in Limbo Town, and necessity had made Klarion's people adept at creating lanterns and candles, yet nothing could compare to that brilliant thing in the sky called the sun.

"Even their graveyards are bathed in light half the time," Klarion commented to Teekl as he walked through the quiet cemetery. "It's amazing. Do they not care if their ancestors are never able to get any real sleep?"

Teekl, perched atop his shoulder, meowed by way of response.

"Ah, you're quite right," Klarion said. "Up here, the dead don't need to worry about being woken and put to work by the living. Normally."

The witch boy came to a stop, and Teekl, responding to an unspoken command from his master, jumped down from his perch and retreated some distance away from him. Klarion held up the wooden rod he had stolen from Judah before leaving Limbo Town.

"By hex and scourge, I command thee dead, _awaken!_" Klarion shouted, the simple staff suddenly glowing with an unholy white light. "Rise, grundies! _Rise!_"

Half a dozen hands burst forth from the dusty earth before half a dozen headstones. Klarion watched with a small smile on his face as the dead crawled out of the ground to reenter the world of the living. The six grundies all looked remarkably similar, time and decay having quite abolished any distinguishing characteristics the men might have had in life. The undead all had gray, shriveled skin, and were dressed in the tattered remains of the fine black suits they had been buried in.

The grundies released a series of low, gurgling groans as tongues and vocal cords that had been reduced to little more than fetid pulp tried and failed to form words. As one, they turned their glassy eyed stares on the witch boy, and suddenly there was unmistakable hostility in walking dead things.

Klarion raised the wooden rod he held once again, and it glow again, though not as brightly as before. The grundies flinched back and immediately became submissive.

"Go forth, and bring Shinji Ikari to me," Klarion commanded. "Once this task is done, I will let you return to your rest."

The half a dozen grundies could not give assent verbally; indeed, they could no more than grunt and groan by way of reply. However, they obediently headed off, and Klarion had no doubt they would obey him.

Teekl meowed and hopped back up onto his shoulder as they departed. Klarion stroke the feline's head affectionately. "There they go, Teekl," he said. "Hopefully by the end of the day, I'll have satisfied that old prune Keel, at least for a while."

* * *

"Won't be able to eat all of that, huh?" Maya asked with a tiny smirk as she and Shinji left the ice cream parlor together.

Shinji smiled weakly. "I don't know how I managed that."

_Maybe it has something to do with you being a fourteen-year-old guy?_ She thought, her smirk widening. She remembered how much she had regularly packed away when she was Shinji's age and frankly wasn't surprised he had been able to consume the whole of Koichi's confection.

"I'm going to be regret doing that," he groaned softly, placing a hand on his stomach.

"Then why did you?" she asked.

"It was just so good I couldn't make myself stop until it was gone," he said ruefully.

Maya grinned. "I think you were trying to save me from making more of a pig of myself than I already have today," she said.

Shinji gave her a confused look, probably wondering why he was now being lauded for something she'd seemed less than happy about only a little while ago. She gave him a sunny smile back and was more than a little relieved when he eventually returned it.

Naturally, the moment was spoiled by the sounds of people's cries of fright and the low groaning of things that never should have existed.

Shinji and Maya's gazes snapped up toward the source of the sound, and the techie felt her eyes widen at what she saw approaching them, namely half a dozen men who were clearly no longer among the living.

_Necromancy? That brat Klarion knows necromancy?_ She thought, momentarily paralyzed by shock.

Strictly speaking, Maya knew that the necromantic arts were no more intrinsically evil than any other branch of magic. Simply knowing and casting the spells wouldn't warp a sorcerer's mind and soul. Power over the dead wouldn't automatically transform someone into a dark lord and master of evil.

However, since just about anyone would be appalled and horrified to discover that _their_ dead relative had been risen from the grave and made into the decaying meat puppet, there were few reasons a _Homi Magi_ with good intentions would ever actually use such powers. Indeed, necromancy had been something of a dying art even before Second Impact had brought an end to the Ninth Age of Magic and a large number of the world's sorcerers and magicians along with it. Maya had once heard her father speculate that necromancy might be entirely dead.

Obviously, that was not the case. The dead were walking the streets of Tokyo-3 that day.

"Oh my god, you have _got_ to be kidding me," the Third Child exclaimed, sounding like he was almost as exasperated and annoyed as he was frightened. Almost. "Zombies? On top of everything else, this city has _zombies_ now?"

"Looks like it," Maya said grimly, "and it looks to me like they're all staring right at us. I think we should probably run."

Taking hold of his arm, Maya started to lead Shinji down the street, away from the undead things she was certain Klarion had summoned from what was supposed to be their eternal resting places. The Third Child quickly caught on and began to run beside her without prompting. However, the series of angry, gurgling groans and growls behind her, accompanied by the terrified cries of the living people on the streets, didn't make her think that escaping would be as easy as sprinting for a few seconds.

"Oh," Shinji groaned, "if I had known I'd be running for my life later, I _definitely_ wouldn't have eaten all that ice cream."

A loud, short burst of laughter tore its way out of the brunette's throat before she could stop it. "God, Shinji-kun, are you actually starting to get jaded about all this?"

He looked taken aback, then thoughtful. "Maybe I am," he said. "I guess it's kind of hard not to in this city."

Maya risked a look back at their pursuers. The hapless civilians who'd had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time certainly weren't the least bit jaded so far as the zombies were concerned, and they were all working themselves into a fine panic. Fortunately, the grundies were literally pushing the bystanders out of the way in their effort to get to her and Shinji. Nobody was receiving more than a few bumps and bruises.

Or at least, that was the case until a pair of black suited men who were obviously members of Section Two actually stepped up to the plate, getting into the path of the undead things and drawing their guns.

_Oh no,_ she thought, knowing that pistols were probably the worst weapon a person facing the undead could choose.

The idea that you could stop a zombie by destroying the brain was an invention of Hollywood. Nothing short of completely _destroying_ the undead being's body would halt it, making a simple axe a far better tool than just about any firearm, short of a bazooka or a seriously high powered machine gun.

Of course, the Section Two agents had no way of knowing this and opened fire. The grundies didn't even slow down, but the black suited men held their ground in the face of the advancing abominations.

_God, why did they have to pick today of all days to actually act noble?_ Maya wondered, knowing that they would probably be killed.

The tech had no absolutely no love for the organization of black suited men. They had always, one and all, struck her as complete bullies and thugs. One of them even made a habit of trying to goose her every time she had the misfortune of running into him at the base.

Yet being in Section Two didn't mean the pair of men weren't human beings anymore, and they _were_ trying to protect Shinji and, by extension, herself.

_If you cast a spell, _someone_ around here is bound to notice,_ a voice in her mind whispered urgently. _NERV will find out, and your life will_ never_ be the same again._

That gave her pause, and she continued to watch the pair of Section Two agents, hoping they'd have the brains to run the hell away.

They didn't and instead continued to uselessly pump lead into the grundies. Reaching a snap decision, she raised one of her hands and opened her mouth.

Then she tripped before she could utter so much as a single syllable, a cry escaping her mouth instead of a spell. She hadn't been watching where she was going for too long.

Shinji's hand shot out and he grabbed hold of her upper arm, helping to steady her and keep her from landing flat on her face. As she regained her balance, she heard a wet, sickening crack, immediately followed by another. The grundies had snapped the Section Two agents' necks.

_Damn,_ she thought, though part of her was guiltily relieved that fate had stepped in and kept her from intervening.

"Must go faster," she told Shinji.

He nodded and put on a burst of speed. The two of them ran for a few more blocks, but the grundies pursued them tirelessly, the zombies leaving panic and carnage in their wake as they bullied their way through the midday crowds.

No other Section Two agents tried to be heroes, thankfully.

"Maya," Shinji gasped out, "what are we going to do?"

She looked over him and saw that the Third Child was panting and sweaty. He also looked a bit green around the gills, to boot. Obviously, Shinji wouldn't be able to keep running for much longer.

Abruptly, bizarrely, Maya found herself wondering if Katsuragi would've made a joke about it being just like a man to have no stamina, if the Ops Director was in this situation.

Then she squelched the thought and grabbed hold of Shinji's hand. "In here!" she said, pulling him toward the nearest building, even as her mind whirled.

She could probably destroy the grundies easily enough if she could use her magic, she supposed, but in order for her to change into Zatanna, she would have to ditch Shinji, first. Somehow, she didn't think that would do the Third Child much good.

_Not that being ripped apart by zombies will help anything, either,_ she thought.

Maya led Shinji through the halls of the apartment building they had barged into, and her hopes of finding a fire axe in a glass box on one of the walls went unfulfilled.

The unmistakable groan of the living dead sounded from behind them.

"This way," Maya said, leading him toward a stairwell.

She realized as they were taking the stairs two and three at a time that venturing indoors might have been a grave mistake, and her mind turned from thoughts of locating a weapon to thoughts of finding an escape route. Going up might not have been the smartest move, either, she realized belatedly.

"Here," the brunette said, throwing open the door to the fourth floor. Shinji, who was looking worse and worse by the minute, continued to follow her without a word.

This hallway was as empty as the one on the ground floor had been, and there were no open doors visible. Growing more desperate, Maya randomly picked a door and threw herself at it. Wood splintered as the door broke and allowed them access to the apartment.

Maya clenched her teeth, feeling like she'd shattered every bone in her shoulder. Only now did it occur to her that she might have asked the young man with her to do that.

"Are you…all right?" Shinji panted.

"Fine," Maya wheezed.

Nobody was shouting at them or screaming, so apparently the apartment was empty. Ignoring the cluttered state of the place, Maya headed over to one of the windows.

She very nearly uttered every profanity she knew as she got closer. A fire escape was outside, the old but hopefully sturdy metal structure holding the promise of a way out of this building. But between them and it were a set of security bars.

_You're got to be kidding me! This is the good part of the city!_ Maya thought in consternation.

The sound of a growl came from a ways off. The grundies weren't upon them yet, but it wouldn't be long.

"Maya," Shinji said breathlessly, "go."

She frowned, turning to him. "What?"

"Go," he repeated. "Listen, stuff like this has been happening a lot lately. I don't know why, but whenever it does, I always seem to be…immune to it somehow. But nobody else is. Run and save yourself. I should be okay." He added, but his voice trembled a bit at the end.

"Oh no, I am _not_ going to just abandon you to those things and trust in whatever unknown force has been protecting you recently," Maya said. "We're getting out of this one together, Shinji-kun."

She immediately began to search the messy apartment for something—anything—useful, and so she didn't notice the look of surprise that appeared on his face at her vehement declaration.

Of course, Maya knew exactly what had been protecting Shinji from the supernatural, and she knew the amulet she gave him would be of no use against the grundies. One of the spells she'd carefully engraved into the thing would inflict pain upon any magical creature who wished the wearer ill and came into contact with him. However, the undead didn't care about pain, and the amulet's other enchantments would likewise be of no help in this situation.

If things _really_ started to look desperate, her only recourse would be to use her magic in sight of Shinji, something she was very, very reluctant to do. She felt pretty confident he'd _try_ and keep her secret, but she knew about how he'd revealed himself to be EVA pilot at his school the moment someone had asked him.

Still, if she had to choose between saving Shinji or keeping her secret secure, Maya obviously would pick the former.

_Here's hoping it doesn't come to that,_ she thought.

Suddenly, her gaze fell upon something that would definitely be useful to her: a screwdriver. Thanking whatever powers might be out there for what felt the one stroke of truly good luck she'd had since the zombies had appeared, she snatched it and headed back toward the window. Opening it up, she found to her relief that the screws holding the security bars onto the wall were on her side. That was about the only thing that showed the designer of the building had had even an ounce of sanity, in her opinion.

"I'm going to take this off," she said, indicating the bars. "See if you can find a weapon to threaten the zombies with, if they show up before I do."

Maybe it was the very idea of facing off against the undead things, or maybe it was the bout of violent exercise he'd performed immediately after stuffing himself silly with ice cold dairy products. Probably it was a combination of both factors.

Whatever the reason, Shinji Ikari bent over and wretched loudly, the remains of the ice cream he'd eaten—now looking a lot less appetizing than it had juts a little while ago—landing on the scuffed wooden floor of the apartment.

"Ugh, sorry," he grunted, standing up.

"It's fine," Maya said, turning back to the window and using the long screwdriver she held to start loosening the screw which held the bars onto the wall.

_It's not my apartment, after all,_ she added silently, wondering what the owner of this place would think when he came home. She'd have to see about getting NERV to compensate the poor guy.

Assuming, of course, that NERV wasn't trying to hunt her down like some kind of fugitive once this ordeal was over.

She heard a brief sound from behind her and realized that Shinji had selected a chair as his weapon, which, if not optimal, was better suited to fighting the undead than Section Two's pistols had been.

The technician got one of the screws out, then another. The grunts and growls of the grundies were growing much closer, but she was starting to think that she'd get herself and Shinji out before their pursuers could set eyes on them in this apartment.

Then Maya got to the next screw and discovered that the head of the thing had been all but totally stripped. She looked at the other remaining screw and saw that it was in no better shape. Suppressing a cry of frustration, got to work. It was much slower going than it had been before, but she was still making progress. All she'd need was another minute or two, and she'd have cleared their escape route.

The sound of one of the grundies pushing aside the broken door chilled her heart. Maya spent a precious second to turn and look back at it and saw that it was alone. Apparently, this grundy was a little less decomposed and thus a little faster than its companions. However, she had no doubt that the others would be along soon.

There was no time left. She redoubled her efforts in getting the security bars off the window, but her hands had gotten sweaty, making it harder to hold onto the screwdriver.

"B-Back!" Shinji yelled fearfully. "Stay back!"

The grundy growled and took a few steps forward, in spite of the way the Third Child was waving around the chair he'd picked up. The moment the grundy got close enough, Shinji swung with all his strength. There was a loud crack of wood breaking as the chair crashed down over the dead man and broke.

The grundy staggered back a step from the force of the blow, then steadied itself and growled at Shinji. The Third Child held up the remains of his makeshift weapon, which consisted of a small part of the chair's back, and suddenly looked very small and feeble in the face of the zombie.

"M-Maya?" Shinji said.

Glancing back and seeing how bad the situation had become, the techie swore silently. It would have taken her only a few more seconds to get them out of this dead end she'd led them to, but she was out of time. She opened her mouth and raised a hand, ready to cast a spell and reveal her supernatural powers.

Then the grundy took a step forward, right into the puddle of vomit Shinji had produced, and it immediately slipped and fell, landing hard on its back.

Seizing upon the opportunity, Maya immediately turned back to her work as the grundy slowly and clumsily began to get back to its feet.

For a moment, the extreme tension of the moment prevented her from actually getting anything accomplished; her hands were shaking too badly. Then she managed to calm herself enough to start turning the screwdriver again.

The screw popped out.

Now with three of the four things removed, Maya was able to slide the safety bars aside, finally allowing Shinji and herself egress.

"Go!" she commanded the Third Child.

Shinji obeyed, quickly slipping out the window and onto the fire escape outside, then offered her a hand to help her out as well. She gratefully took it as she escaped the apartment, just as the grundy made it to his feet and his companions appeared in the doorway.

Even though she knew it wouldn't slow the damn things down for more than a split second, Maya slid the security bar back into place before she and Shinji went running down the fire escape as quickly as they dared. The grundies were soon coming after them.

"Now what?" Shinji asked as they at last made it to the ground and into a short alleyway by the side of the building.

Maya didn't answer, just running toward the street, mainly because she didn't have an answer to give him. She was very much playing this by ear.

Then she made it to the road and her brown eyes settled upon a certain vehicle that was parked by the opposite side of the street. Maya was amazed to see it there; it was an American made gas guzzler if there had ever been one. Even before Second Impact had drastically driven up the prices of many commodities, including oil, they had been considered absurdly wasteful and almost nobody drove them anymore, even in the States. Maya had certainly always viewed them with contempt.

Yet at the moment, that stupidly massive car was nothing short of beautiful to her eyes.

"God bless America," she said as she led Shinji toward the enormous H1 Hummer.

Shinji frowned in confusion as she stopped next to the parked car. "What are you—?"

He stopped speaking abruptly as Maya used the long screwdriver, which she had entirely forgotten to discard, to smash the driver's side window. Shinji jumped slightly at the sound of the glass breaking, and several people turned to look at them, but the technician paid them no heed. Maya unlocked the door and opened it, mentally adding this to the list of repairs NERV would have to pay for once this was all done.

"Come on, you've got shotgun," Maya told Shinji, hopping into the car and then helping him up. He plopped himself down into the passenger seat as the brunette hastily wiped some of the glass shards off the driver's seat.

"Here they come," Shinji said, indicating the grundies that were emerging from the alleyway, sending the nearby people, who had been on the verge of intervening in the apparent auto theft, to go running away instead.

"I've got this," Maya said, using the screwdriver to pry off a plastic panel beneath the steering wheel, revealing the cluster of wires there.

Maya had never been an auto mechanic, but she had worked with machines for most of her adult life, and not just with programming them. She'd be damned if it took her more than a few seconds to hotwire a car.

Touching two wires together, her confidence in her mechanical ability was vindicated as the Hummer's gigantic engine came to life with a thunderous roar. Maya quickly reached down and shifted the vehicle into gear.

_God, I can barely reach the pedals,_ the petite young woman thought with annoyance as she struggled to get the Hummer pointed in the direction she wanted, namely right at the grundies.

"Maya…" Shinji said, seeing that the undead men were getting too close to them for comfort.

She pushed the accelerator down as far as she could, which, if not to the floor, was still pretty far. The Hummer thundered forward, crashing right into the half-dozen grundies with a series of loud thwacks. Both Shinji and Maya and were jostled about unpleasantly as the car drove right over the dead men. Finally, the car crashed into the side of the building they had just escaped from, leaving a very big dent in the brick wall and causing the car's airbags to deploy. Fortunately, the Hummer hadn't been able to build up nearly enough to speed to send Shinji and Maya shooting through the windshield on impact.

"Well," Shinji said weakly, panting, this time from fright rather than exertion, "that was…"

Maya shifted the car into reverse and then pressed down on the gas pedal again, running over the grundies once more. Then she shifted it back into drive and drove over them _again_. She repeated this process multiple times, until she was damn sure that she had totally destroyed the bodies of the undead men.

Then, finally, she allowed herself to lean back into the driver's seat, her body going limp as the adrenaline began to desert her. However, a small smile appeared on her face as a thought occurred to her.

_Well, this is definitely one situation where science trumped magic,_ she mused. _Internal combustion engine: 1. Zombies: 0._

Maya became aware of the flashing red and blue lights a moment later. Several police cars were approaching, no doubt to investigate the disturbance.

"Shinji-kun, I think we might be in for a very long afternoon," she observed, not relishing the idea of having to explain all this to the authorities one bit.

* * *

What followed the insane chase was about what was to be expected. The police were _highly_ skeptical of Maya's story, but the presence of the Third Child with her immediately gave them pause, preventing any sort of harsh interrogation. NERV quickly interceded, and when several witnesses corroborated the story Maya and Shinji gave—a story which didn't seem nearly as bizarre and impossible as it might have, in light of the sort of things that had been happening in the city lately—they had been released. Maya had even received an official commendation from NERV for going above and beyond the call of duty in her protection of the Third Child.

Yet for all that, when Monday rolled around, it was back to business as usual for the brunette. Part of her was rather amazed that she could be just sitting at her terminal on the bridge when _that_ had happened such a short period of time ago, but another part of her was comforted by the familiar routine.

Unfortunately, it was a slow day in NERV headquarters, which meant the brunette was left with plenty of time to think, and there was only one thing to think about, so far as she was concerned.

_There's no way Klarion would have done that if SEELE had tugged on his leash because of his stunt with the pixies,_ she decided grimly. _This _had_ to have been sanctioned by them. Heck, he probably did it on their orders._

Of course, that led up to one inescapable conclusion, namely that Klarion's efforts toward Shinji weren't going to come to an end any time soon.

Unless, of course, _she_ brought them to them to an end. Reluctant as she was to confront the agent of SEELE, it seemed like she no longer had any choice. Zatanna would have to seek out the little brat and ensure he ceased antagonizing the Third Child.

It was not something she looked forward to, to put it mildly.

The loud klaxons and accompanying flashing red lights rudely broke her out of her thoughts, and Maya scrambled to find out what was going on, feeling embarrassed that she had allowed her mind to wander so much while she was on the job. Her fingers blurred over her keyboard, and within moments, the computer had coughed up the answer.

**Orange Pattern Detected**

**Possible Angel Incursion Alert**

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Much like Girl of Steel, Maya's fic is one that I wrote for some time with only a pretty vague idea of where I was going. However, I finally sat down and did a better job of planning out the plot, and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with it.

I've already gotten some inspiration from the new Zatanna comic book, which I'm enjoying quite a bit so far. I was originally afraid when I heard about it—the lack of any hard limits on Zatanna's powers make her difficult to write for—but when I heard Paul Dini was the man behind it, I knew the book was in the best possible hands. Not only is Dini good, but Zatanna is his favorite character. I've heard there's even a running joke at DC that he's actually in love with the character. This might have something to do with Dini marrying a magician, of course.

But I'm rambling, as usual. So let me just say thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader, as well.

Now for some fun!

* * *

Maya the Mythbuster

"Hello everyone!" a redheaded man with a small beard and glasses with thick black frames greeted the camera enthusiastically. "I'm Adam Savage."

"And I'm Jamie Hyneman," a man with a prodigious walrus mustache added.

"And we're the Mythbusters!" Adam continued. "Here, on location in Tokyo-3, Japan, to test some myths concerning NERV, that oh-so-mysterious organization with the giant robots. And while the Build Team is testing some myths related to the giant robots themselves—"

There was suddenly a very, _very_ large explosion in the distance.

"Led by an overzealous Grant Imahara, apparently," Jamie commented with a smirk.

"We're going to be testing some more local myths about this place and the people who live here," Adam said. "And for that, we've recruited NERV technician and honorary Mythbuster, Maya Ibuki."

The petite brunette walked into the view of the camera. "Hello," she greeted Adam and Jamie. "I love your show."

"Thank you," Jamie said.

"All right, Maya," Adam said. "You know this place better than we do. What myth is waiting out there for us?"

"Well, I thought we might start with the myth that the Commander of NERV isn't actually human," Maya said.

"What?" Jamie asked.

"People here have long ago started to theorize that Gendo Ikari has proven through his actions that he can't possibly be a human, as no one with a human soul could possibly do the things he's done," Maya elaborated. "As a result, people have begun to speculate that he is, actually, a flock of ducks in a Gendo suit."

"So how do you propose we test this myth?" Adam asked.

"Oh, I was thinking the direct approach," Maya was suddenly seen to be holding a stick of dynamite in each hand. "Time for science!" she proclaimed, and went walking off.

"I like her," Jamie commented to Adam.

"I think she'll fit in just fine around here," Adam agreed.

* * *

She's Created a Monster

Maya awoke with a slight groan, not immediately sure where she was or what happened. She rubbed her eyes, her sleepy brain giving her the details of what had occurred.

_Let's see,_ she thought. _I decided to show Shinji my new lingerie, he passed out, I used magic to turn him into a sex god…_

That was when _all_ the memories of what had happened came back to her, causing Maya to shiver with pleasure. She'd known her magic was powerful, but even she hadn't suspected it was _that_ powerful.

Smiling languidly, she turned to the large, roughly Shinji-sized lump in the blankets next to her. "Hey, there, stud," she said, reaching out for him. "Do you want—?"

She stopped in mid-sentence when her hand came into contact with the lump and she realized Shinji wasn't underneath it. She quickly pulled back the blankets to reveal only a large pillow.

_Oh, this could be bad,_ Maya thought.

The question of how long she'd been asleep suddenly seemed much more important than it had a moment ago, and she snatched up the clock on her bedside table. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

"Oh my god!" Maya exclaimed. "I slept through an entire chapter?"

There was no telling what kind of trouble the magically enhanced EVA pilot might have already gotten into while she slept.

The technician picked up the phone that sat near her bed and frantically dialed the number of Katsuragi's apartment. Someone picked up on the third ring.

"_Hellooooo,_" the voice on the other end of the line seemed…almost drunk, but it wasn't the voice of the Ops Director.

"Asuka?" Maya asked, feeling dread building up inside her.

"That's me," the redhead pilot replied.

"Uh, is Misato around? Can you put her on?" Maya asked.

"Oh, she's still asleep," Asuka replied, sounding smug. "I really thought she'd last longer, given her reputation and everything, but I guess she's just getting old or something. She didn't last more than a few hours once Shinji-sama _really_ kicked it into high gear."

_Crap,_ Maya thought as her fears were confirmed.

"Tell me, Asuka, is Shinji still there?" Maya asked.

"Hmm? Oh no, he took off for NERV for some reason," Asuka replied. "Said something about smart being sexy."

Maya's brown eyes widened. "Ritsuko…" she breathed.

"What was that?" Asuka asked.

"I have to go, Asuka!" Maya said, quickly hanging up and then rising from her bed. "Sempai! I will rescue your purity from the monster I've created!" she proclaimed.


	8. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC Comics or anything associated with it, and I am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Seven: **Darkness

The atmosphere in the command center was tense, to put it mildly. Everyone was paying attention to their assigned tasks with laser-like focus, and several people were sweating despite the cool temperature of the room.

_And why shouldn't we all be tense?_ Maya thought. _After all, we're sending three kids into battle for us against a monster we know almost nothing about. Again._

The technician wondered, not for the first time, how in the world she had managed to let _that_ little fact affect her so little in the past.

_Probably because I didn't know any of the Children very well back then,_ she decided guiltily.

"…and that's all the information we have about this," Misato said as she finished briefing the pilots. "It's isn't much. Less than usual, in fact; the MAGI aren't even willing to confirm that this is an Angel yet."

"Well, of course it's an Angel!" Asuka retorted. "What _else_ could be?"

The Ops Director ignored the remark. "I want you all to exercise extreme caution. This Angel doesn't look too frightening, but neither did the Fifth, and we know how _that_ turned out."

"What are you orders, Major?" Rei asked quietly.

"I want the three of you to approach the Angel," Misato said. "Don't let it a get look at you if you can avoid it. Once you're all within range, attack. Asuka, you take point."

"Yes, ma'am!" the Second Child replied eagerly.

Maya frowned. The pilot of Unit Two somehow seemed more enthusiastic than she should have been. Not that Asuka was usually reluctant to enter into battle against their enemies and hopefully show how off her combat prowess, of course, but something still seemed off to the techie.

Of course, Maya didn't know that Shinji had made the Second Child think she still had the highest sync ratio, or that Asuka was chomping at the bit to prove how that made her the greatest as a result.

"No showboating, Asuka," Misato said, apparently getting the same feeling the technician did.

"Yeah, yeah," the Second Child grumbled, and closed the connection, the 'FROM UNIT-02' box on the command center's main viewer winking out.

"Unit Zero moving to back up Unit Two," Rei said.

"Uh, Unit One moving in to support, too," Shinji said.

The two other pilots cut their own communication links to headquarters, and for the people in the command center, waiting became the name of the game.

_Wonderful,_ Maya thought sarcastically as she gazed up at the main viewer, which currently showed the Angel.

This one had taken the form of a huge black and white striped sphere that was floating lazily through the sky over Tokyo-3. It really didn't look very frightening, Maya decided.

Of course, as a magician, she knew better than anyone present just _how_ deceptive appearances could be.

After a seemingly endless period of time, the three Evangelions managed to creep to within firing range of the Angel.

"We're all in position," Asuka reported, and even the fiery redhead spoke in a whisper, as though afraid that the Angel would hear her.

Misato hesitated for only a moment before giving the order. "Attack."

Immediately, all three Evangelions broke cover, firearms drawn. They fired, sending enormous shells flying up toward the Angel.

And that was when everything went wrong.

The Angel seemed to wink of existence. One moment it was there, and the next it wasn't. And the very moment that happened, alarms started to blare inside the command center. Red warning messages appeared on every available screen.

"What's happening?" Misato demanded, shouting over the din.

"The MAGI have detected a blue pattern!" Makoto said. "Twelfth Angel confirmed!"

"_What the—?_" the voice of the Second Child suddenly filled the command center. "A _shadow?_"

The bridge crew briefly traded confused glances with one another, but when many of the buildings in Tokyo-3 began to tilt, it soon became all too clear what the Second Child was talking about.

"My god…" Maya breathed.

The ground beneath much of the city had transformed into an inky black void, and everything upon it was sinking into the darkness.

Including the Evangelions. All three were already ankle deep in the abyss.

"Get out of there!" Misato commanded the pilots. "_**Now!**_"

"What do you think we're trying to do?" Asuka snapped back irritably.

Indeed, the trio of Evangelions were trying to escape the Angel, but the blackness clung to the war machines' feet like thick mud. Their progress was very slow, and for all anyone knew, they could be sucked down into the blackness at any moment.

And all they could do was watch the scene play out, their hearts in their throats.

_God, even I don't know how I could fix this, even if I was willing to show everyone my magic,_ Maya thought, biting her lower lip.

Her hopes rose abruptly as Unit One managed to reach a nearby skyscraper and scramble up the side until it was fully out of the blackness. A cheer went up inside the command center.

"Ayanami!" Shinji shouted, holding a hand to Unit Zero, which was closer to him than Unit Two.

The blue Evangelion didn't hesitate, immediately taking the offered hand of the test type. Shinji pulled, trying to free Rei from the hungry maw.

And the wall of the building he was gripping fell off. Shinji let out a cry as Unit One fell, landing atop Unit Zero. The two of them landed in a heap and almost instantly began to sink into the darkness.

"No!" Asuka shouted.

By some miracle, she managed to find Unit One's free hand before both the purple and blue Evangelions slipped away. She pulled fiercely.

But Unit Two itself had no stable perch. Asuka's efforts served only to delay the inevitable for Shinji and Rei, while accelerating the speed with which she herself sank. In seconds, the crimson Evangelion was up to her waist in darkness.

"Asuka, get out of there!" Misato ordered. "**Save yourself!**" She almost seemed to choke on the last part of the order.

But it was too late for that. Even after abandoning her efforts to rescue the other Evangelions, Asuka couldn't actually get her EVA to go anywhere, and there was no building near enough for her to grab onto. All she could do was sink.

"No!" Asuka yelled. "_No!_"

The head of Unit Two disappeared beneath the darkness, and the Second Child's shrieks were replaced by static.

* * *

About an hour later, a NERV helicopter flew through the air over Tokyo-3. Or, more accurately, it flew through the air over the giant void where a chunk of the city had once been. The Project-E chairperson had wanted to survey the beast with her own eyes, and she had invited her assistant to come with her.

Accepting that invitation was a decision Maya was coming to regret. Looking down into that all consuming darkness stirred some deep, primal fear within her.

"Major Katsuragi must feel terrible," Maya said softly, mostly to try and distract herself from the abyss.

"Fifteen hours," Ritsuko said.

Maya frowned. "Sempai?"

"Fifteen hours," Ritsuko repeated. "That's how long the pilots have left to live, assuming they all immediately switched to life support mode, instead of wasting time and energy flailing around in the dark. After that…"

She trailed off, but Maya didn't need to complete the thought. Once the Evangelions' batteries ran out of power, the systems which filtered, oxygenated, and heated the LCL in the plugs would fail.

_After that, the only question is whether they freeze or suffocate first,_ the tech thought, feeling a potent wave of fear for Shinji wash over her.

She hadn't realized just how attached she'd gotten to the pilot of Unit One until now. Even though she'd initially sought his company solely because she hoped to avert Third Impact, since then, Shinji had become her…

_Friend? Pseudo-little brother? Protégé?_ She wondered.

No, she decided. While she would have called him a friend, and she supposed that her role as his tutor did technically make him her protégé in some fashion, none of those words _quite_ encapsulated what Shinji was to her.

And for some reason, she _definitely_ didn't feel a sibling bond with him.

_Now he's trapped inside that Angel, and even my magic can't get him out,_ she mused worriedly. She had made a spare moment earlier and had used it to try and teleport the Evangelion pilots out, but the spell had utterly failed. Apparently, not even her formidable powers could bridge the gap between their world and the innards of the Angel.

"You had enough of this, Doc?" the helicopter pilot asked Ritsuko, jolting Maya from her thoughts. "Because we only have enough fuel to stay up here for another hour."

"I think we've seen more than enough, thank you," Ritsuko said. "You can set us down near the field base."

"Roger that, Doc."

The pilot brought the chopper down in a large, empty parking lot that was only a couple of blocks away from the mass of tents that formed NERV's impromptu field base. Ritsuko and Maya quickly disembarked and made their way there.

"It's Dr. Akagi!" one of the technicians working at the base called to his comrades, spotting the bottle blonde before she and Maya had even reached the perimeter.

Maya blinked in surprise as she and Ritsuko found themselves instantly mobbed by NERV's best and brightest scientists and technicians, all of them talking at once. It was a mad, free-for-all contest for the Project-E chairperson's attention.

"Dr. Akagi, we've already run a preliminary analysis on the Angel—"

"—already set up a wireless link to the MAGI supercomputers—"

"Caspar believes this Angel might have a four-dimensional structure—"

"It doesn't seem to conform to any known set of physical laws—"

"—the _sphere_ is the shadow, and the shadow—"

It was utter pandemonium, and it caused a warm feeling to blossom in Maya's chest. All these people were clearly as eager to rescue the pilots as she was, or nearly so. And they were damn good at their jobs. Maya knew that for a fact.

Certainly, if they all worked together, they could figure this out and save the pilots.

"Hey!" Ritsuko said. "_HEY!_"

Everyone quieted immediately.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but this chaos isn't helping anything," Ritsuko said. "Now let's go back to the base and start going over this in an orderly fashion."

_And if anybody can lead this team to success, it's Ritsuko-sempai,_ Maya thought, feeling a great swell of admiration for her mentor as she watched the blonde scientist take charge of the situation and herd everyone back to the big tent reserved for Tech Division One.

"Okay," Ritsuko said, once the whole group was inside, "what do we actually know for sure about this Angel?"

The answer turned out to be distressingly little. They had confirmed that the Angel's body was 680 meters wide but only three nanometers thick, and that it possessed an inverted AT field—something that had been purely theoretical up until that day. Within that inverted At field, supposedly, was a type of pocket dimension known as a Dirac Sea.

After that, all they had was a bunch of conjecture, speculation, and wild hypotheses.

"All right, so to sum things up, we have less than fifteen hours to figure out how to beat this problem," Ritsuko said. "we have no hard data on what the physical laws within the Sea of Dirac might be, where this Angel's core is, or if it even has one. For that matter, we don't even know why it decided to halt its advance when it's on the verge of victory."

"Maybe it needs time to digest the Evangelions?" suggested one of the more junior technicians, a woman named Sakura who always seemed to be wearing a headset.

Everyone turned a dark look on her, and she cringed beneath the force of the collective glare. "Sorry," she said.

Ritsuko cleared her throat, drawing the attention away from the hapless tech and back to herself. "If circumstances were better, I'd have NERV investing in a number of deep space exploration probes, but our time would be up before we could even get them shipped here, never mind assembling them," she said. "Our best bet is to use what information we _do_ have and combine that with our best guesses to create a simulation of the Angel inside the MAGI. We can use that to figure out what course of action is most likely to result in success."

Maya blinked. That plan seemed…less than ambitious, considering that the lives of the pilots would be forfeit if they didn't succeed. Even without thinking about it much, the brunette could easily come up with several other things they could do to help increase their chances of success.

_Okay, maybe deep space probes are out of the question, but the people at the Mount Asuma lab should have another magma probe by now,_ she mused. _Sure, they'd probably kill us if we commandeered and wrecked __**another**__ one of their probes, but the pilots' lives are in jeopardy here!_

Judging by the expressions of the other members of Technical Division One, they were having thoughts similar to Maya's. However, nobody looked quite ready to object to their boss's plan.

"Well?" Ritsuko demanded. "What are you all waiting for? Get to work!"

Everyone immediately scrambled to follow the Project-E chairperson's orders, and the previously subdued assembly immediately became a noisy hive of activity.

Maya rolled her eyes. _Guess that the job of questioning sempai falls to her loyal right hand woman,_ she thought. _Hooray for me._

Making her way through the churning crowd of scientists and her other fellow nerds, Maya eventually managed to reach Ritsuko. The bottle blonde was currently speaking to a pair of junior techs about how to input the relevant data on the Angel into the MAGI.

"Excuse me, sempai?" she said, just as Ritsuko was finishing up.

"Yes, what is it?" the scientist asked distractedly, looking over something on a clipboard.

"Um, couldn't we be doing…more?" she asked tentatively.

"Like what?" Ritsuko asked.

Maya told her boss about her idea to use the magma probe.

"Out of the question," Ritsuko said. "We'd probably lose it the moment it crossed the event horizon, just like we lost the Evangelions. Besides, getting it down here and assembling the rigging needed to use it would use up too much of NERV's manpower and equipment."

_But those resources are just sitting idle right now,_ Maya thought, but didn't say.

"Well then, why don't we contact someone with more expertise on the subject?" she suggested instead. "None of us here are really theoretical physics people. We could call up CERN and ask someone there for help with this problem."

Ritsuko looked at her watch. "It's the middle of the night in Geneva."

"I'm okay with waking up some of the most brilliant people alive if you are," Maya countered, and was surprised at her own boldness.

Ritsuko considered for a moment, then shrugged. "If you're so intent on pursuing this, go ahead."

Maya blinked, taken aback and a little hurt by the casual brush off. She'd been hoping that Ritsuko would call Geneva herself (the name 'Akagi' had had some serious weight in the scientific community ever since the creation of the MAGI), or at least make someone else do it. But to be so easily dismissed, like her sempai didn't need her in this moment of crisis…

_Oh, stop it,_ she commanded herself. _This is what you wanted. Sort of._

"Thank you, ma'am," she said, leaving to get to work.

Maya quickly commandeered a laptop before departing the noisy tent, which wasn't exactly the best place for a conference call with people that probably made her look like an intellectual pipsqueak.

She intended to get right to work trying to figure out how to get a scientist halfway across the world to speak with her, but when she spied a woman in a red bomber jacket standing nearby, she decided she could delay for a couple of minutes.

"Major Katsuragi?" she said, approaching the Ops Director.

"Oh, Maya," Misato said, taking her eyes off the black void in the distance to look at the petite brunette.

"Are you all right?" the tech asked.

"Yes," Misato answered, then laughed bitterly. Coming from the usually cheerful woman, the sound was somehow disturbing and wrong. "No."

Maya hesitated, unsure how to proceed. She was just thinking of making a retreat when Misato spoke up again.

"You know Chiron?" the Ops Director asked abruptly. "The Chief of Section Two?"

"Uh, I know _of_ him," Maya replied. "I've never met the man, though. Tech Div One and Section Two don't have a lot to do with each other."

Misato chuckled humorlessly. "Then consider yourself lucky," she said. "The man's an utterly ruthless bastard. Also likes to tell everyone that I'm an idiot for taking in two of the pilots and letting myself get attached to them. He thinks that if I'm forced to choose between sacrificing one of the Children or letting the Angels win, I'll let the Angels win."

"I see," Maya replied, not sure where the Ops Director was going with this.

"Right now, I'm wondering if maybe he's sort of right," Misato confessed. "Not for his reasons, but because if I…if I lose them now…" her voice hitched, and she turned away, clearly not wanting to let the tech witness her moment of weakness.

Maya politely pretended not to notice her superior officer's emotional state and looked away until Misato had composed herself.

"Sorry," Misato said. "It's just driving me nuts that I can't really _do_ anything to help in this situation."

"Tech Div One is doing absolutely everything we can, ma'am," Maya said earnestly, deciding not to mentions her misgivings about Dr. Akagi's strategy. "Everybody's giving this 150 percent of their effort. We'll find a way."

"Glad to hear it," Misato said. "Hey, speaking of which, what are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be helping Rits with something or other?"

Maya tried to keep the scowl off her face at the reminder of how her sempai apparently didn't need her now; the last thing Misato needed was to hear her petty complaints.

"I've been given the job of getting in touch with a theoretical physicist who can help us figure out what the Angel's insides might look like," Maya said instead.

"There's someone like that in the city?" Misato asked.

The techie shook her head. "Nope," she said. "I have to call CERN in Geneva. Some of the best physicists in the world are there, and I get to wake them up."

Maya left out the part about how she would begin her quest to contact these brilliant minds by running a Google search for CERN and hoping she got a website with a phone number on it.

Misato forced a smile. "Then I'll let you get to it," she said. "And thanks. It really makes me feel better to know that everybody is so dedicated to saving the Children."

"You're welcome," Maya replied automatically.

Misato returned to gazing out at the Angel, and the technician went looking for a quiet place where she could work on her self-assigned mission.

* * *

"All this waiting is going to be the death of me," Shinji commented to himself, stretching out as best he could inside the confines of the entry plug.

Of course, the way his muscles were getting stiff was really the least of his worries, but it was the one he preferred to focus on. At least he could actually try and _do_ something about it.

Because he couldn't do a damn thing about the fact that he was going to die before the end of the day if something didn't change. Die a probably slow and lingering death, and—

"_Stop it!_" he shouted at himself.

It was much too early to give up hope yet. NERV was out there, in the world of light and air outside the Angel, and they had to be trying to get him and the other pilots out. And they still had many hours left to work.

"And panicking isn't going to help anything," Shinji said. "Of course, neither will talking to myself like a crazy person." He added, rolling his eyes.

He needed to try and think about something he pleasant, he decided, to get his mind off his upcoming demise.

Shinji's mind quickly found itself settling upon Maya, and he smiled.

He hadn't wanted to admit the attraction he'd felt toward her; he'd been afraid that she only tutored him and spent time with him out of pity, and that she would gleefully cease her efforts once she felt certain he wouldn't flunk out of junior high.

But she had been so _vehement_ in her refusal to leave him to fend for himself when they had been fleeing from the undead, that even he couldn't believe she might not care about him at all.

That didn't mean he thought he could have her, of course—he still knew perfectly well that he couldn't—but he was now willing to admit to himself that he had feelings for her.

_Toji and Kensuke would think I was nuts for having a crush on Maya, if they knew,_ he thought with a slight smirk.

He could understand that on one level. Maya was cute, yes, but she didn't have the bodacious body Misato did, and she was no exotic beauty like Asuka and Rei each were, in their own separate fashions. That he should be so attracted to the slightly mousey brunette when he spent so much time with those three did, on the surface of it, seem a little absurd.

But if Maya lacked Misato's formidable bust, Asuka's dramatic copper colored mane, and Rei's striking ruby eyes, she _also_ didn't have his guardian's penchant for teasing him until he was on the verge of exploding, the redhead's fiery temper, and Rei's often inscrutable strangeness.

He cared for Misato, Asuka, and Rei, of course, but they intimidated him, each in their own way. Maya didn't intimidate him, or at least, she intimidated him no more than any woman he found attractive would. He was never really afraid that things would go south when he spent time with her, and she was a normal young woman in a city where normalcy was a rare commodity. She was also thoughtful and kind.

_And those legs go __**all**__ the way up,_ the part of his mind that was very much that of an adolescent male piped up. _God, I wonder what it would take to get her to wear high heels?_

Shinji quickly squelched _that_ line of thought. He shouldn't be thinking such crass things about someone who was so nice to him.

He looked around the dim confines of the plug then and sighed. "Of course, I'd rather be thinking about that than about what's probably going to happen in a few hours," he muttered. "Crud, I'm talking to myself again."

* * *

"Okay, let me see if I have this right," Maya said, scribbling furiously on a whiteboard she had commandeered while using her shoulder to keep her cell phone pressed against her ear. "If we were to bombard the Angel with fermions, they should disrupt the Dirac Sea…"

"Yes, because of the anti-symmetric wave function," the woman on the other end of the line answered, her British accent giving the Japanese words an exotic but not unpleasant lilt.

"Which will invert the inverted AT field, and thus release the Evangelions," Maya finished triumphantly.

Over four hours had passed since Ritsuko had given the techie leave to pursue her idea herself, and Maya was amazed by the progress she'd made in that time.

_And all because I managed to get in touch with exactly the right person,_ she thought. _I guess someone had to have __**some**__ good luck today._

"Well, so far as I can calculate, yes," the _very_ well-respected scientist Maya had woken up said, pulling the petite brunette from her thoughts. "Of course, there _are_ some elements of guesswork here, since we're dealing with something no one fully understands."

"I realize that, but this is by far the best chance the pilots have of surviving," Maya said. "I can't thank you enough, Professor Williams. Or apologize enough for waking you up like this."

"Oh, think nothing of it, Miss Ibuki. I was glad to have my sleep interrupted for this. If not for the time constraints, I'd be flinging clothing into a suitcase and trying to find a flight to Japan right now," the professor chuckled, then sighed. "I only wish Grandpa Paul had lived to see this."

"I'm sure he'd be very proud of you," Maya replied.

"Thank you," Professor Williams said quietly. "Well, you have things to do, and I should get back to bed. Good luck, and don't forget that you owe me a copy of all the data you get from this Angel."

"Of course," Maya said, silently hoping that NERV allowed her to send at least _some_ of the information to the academic. "Good evening, Professor."

"Bye, Maya."

The technician pushed the end button on her phone, terminating her call with the granddaughter of Paul Dirac, the physicist who'd postulated that a Dirac Sea could exist decades ago.

"Whew, I like an intellectual challenge as much as the next nerd, but that was _intense_," she commented to herself, putting her phone back in her pocket.

Maya, a computer technician by training, had a moderate grasp of particle physics, at best. Many of the terms and concepts that Professor Williams had thrown around—the Pauli Exclusion Principle, Fermi-Dirac Statistics, quantum state, and half-integer spin, just to name a few—had sailed right over her head, even when the scientist had graciously explained them.

_If she hadn't been so patient, I would've been in big trouble,_ Maya thought as she looked the very complex equation she had written on the whiteboard. Even now, she barely understood it. _This would have been __**so**__ much easier with sempai's help._

Well, easy or difficult, this part of the job was done. Maya wheeled the whiteboard back toward the large tent devoted to Tech Division One, then went inside to find Ritsuko.

The chairperson of Project-E was nowhere to be found, however.

"Sakura," Maya said, noticing the junior technician as she was walking by.

"Yes, what can I do for you, Lieutenant Ibuki?" she asked, coming to a stop.

"Where is Dr. Akagi?" Maya asked.

"She left a minute ago to discuss something with Major Katsuragi," Sakura answered.

Maya thanked the other tech, then left the tent and began to search the makeshift field base, warning everyone in the area not to erase what was written on her whiteboard while she was gone.

She was initially unsuccessful at locating either Ritsuko or Misato, and she was about to start asking people if they'd seen either of them.

Then she heard the shout.

"Now _wait_ a second!" Misato exclaimed loudly.

Frowning, Maya headed in the direction she'd heard the shout coming from. She went around one of the many large tents in the base and soon saw the Ops Director and the Project-E chairperson. Just from their postures, Maya could tell that they weren't having a friendly little chat.

She decided to linger where she was, a decent distance from the two, rather than to approach and make her presence known.

"In this case, the pilots' lives are not our main concern," Ritsuko said. The scientist was clearly trying to remain composed, but the rising volume of her voice belied the facade. "Retrieving the Evangelions _must_ be our top priority."

"You can't do this!" Misato shouted. "Could you really live with yourself knowing you're responsible for the deaths of those kids!"

"I am not and will not be responsible for that!" Ritsuko yelled, the already cracked image of calmness shattering entirely. "You are the Operations Director, you are Shinji and Asuka's guardian, and _you_ were the one who gave them the order to attack! The Children are _your_ responsibility, not mine! If the Children die, it's _your_ fault! Don't forget that!"

Misato paused for a moment.

Then she slapped the Project-E chairperson across the face. The meaty smacking sound of the Ops Director's palm striking Ritsuko's cheek seemed deafening, and it caused Maya to wince.

_What in the world is going on?_ The technician wondered, bewildered. _I thought they were friends!_

She continued watching the two, but the confrontation appeared to be over; Misato turned and stalked away without another word. Finally having no excuse to hesitate further, Maya approached Ritsuko.

"Sempai?" she said quietly.

The scientist had been glaring intently at the purple-haired woman's retreating back, and she jumped when she heard the voice from behind her, spinning around out of shock. "Oh, Maya, it's you," she said.

"Sorry if I frightened you," the technician said contritely.

"It's fine," Ritsuko said with a dismissive wave, using her other to hand to rub her cheek. There was already a red handprint starting to form, a testament to the Ops Director's surprising strength. "How much did you see?"

"…just a bit at the end," Maya admitted reluctantly, ashamed to admit she'd been eavesdropping.

"Not my finest moment, or hers, for that matter," Ritsuko grumbled.

"What happened?" Maya asked, unable to restrain her curiosity for any longer.

"Misato wasn't exactly enthusiastic about my plan for dealing with this Angel," Ritsuko said dryly. "In fact, she hates it so much that she'd rather we do nothing and hope for a miracle. I had to relieve her of command for this operation."

"…oh," Maya said quietly, stunned. "Um, sempai, what is your plan?"

Ritsuko sighed. "We're going to drop every N2 mine we can get our hands on—all 992 of them—right into the Angel and hope that the energy will be too much for it," she said.

"But sempai, the Children would never survive that," Maya said quietly. "Not unless they had their Evangelions' AT fields deployed."

"And they can't use the AT field in life support mode, I know," Ritsuko said testily. "It's not a perfect plan, but it's the only plan we've got."

"But it's not!" Maya said, brightening.

Ritsuko frowned. "What do you mean?"

Maya asked Ritsuko to accompany her back to where she'd left her whiteboard, and began explaining on the way. "Once I was finally able to convince the people at CERN that I wasn't a prank caller they put me in touch with a brilliant physicist," the tech said. "With her help, I was able to hammer out a plan for dealing this Angel."

Reaching the whiteboard, Maya began to explain the science of her plan to Ritsuko. It made her feel like a schoolgirl trying to lecture Albert Einstein, especially with the way her tongue kept tripping over terms she only half-understood, but she continued on doggedly until she was done.

"The particles fired by a positron cannon are exactly the kind of high energy, positively charged fermions which should, assuming the theory is correct, of course, be able to cause a Dirac sea inversion. And the experimental positron rifle we borrowed from the JSSDF to use against the Fifth Angel should have enough punch to do the job," she finished at last.

Ritsuko didn't immediately respond and instead stared at Maya's equation for several moments. The petite brunette resisted the urge to fidget nervously as the silence drew on.

_I don't __**think**__ I messed up anything in my explanation…_

"No," Ritsuko said finally. "No, it won't do."

"What? Why not?" Maya blurted out at once, flabbergasted by the flat dismissal.

"This whole thing is based on far too much guess work and supposition," Ritsuko replied. "If we had months to work with, I'd be willing to gather enough data to see if this plan is really viable or not. But we don't have days, we have hours."

Maya wanted to retort that Ritsuko's "nuke it 'til it explodes" plan was also based on speculation—and speculation formed without aid from one of Paul Dirac's heirs, at that—but she knew saying that wouldn't do anyone any good.

"Can we do both?" Maya asked instead. "Blast the Angel with the JSSDF positron rifle, and then use the N2 mines if that fails?"

Ritsuko shook her head. "We only have so much time and so many resources," she said. "I'm sorry, Maya, but this plan of yours simply isn't feasible."

The brunette, frankly, wanted to call bullshit on this excuse. In emergency situations like this, NERV possessed an awesome level of authority; all of Japan's resources were at their disposal, and they had shown in the past that they could almost literally move mountains with those resources.

_If Major Katsuragi could get a base erected on Mount Futago, and have all the electricity in the country diverted there in time to fight the Fifth Angel, why can't we get the positron cannon now?_ She wondered.

Ritsuko placed a hand on her assistant's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Maya," she said softly.

"But…but…" Maya stammered, a thousand objections swirling around inside her head.

_But those Children have sacrificed so much for us, we can't repay them by not doing everything we can to save them,_ she thought. _And I told Major Katsuragi we'd pull this off. And Shinji's in there…_

"I know it's hard, but we have to accept reality," Ritsuko said.

With those words, a rather horrible thought occurred to the technician. Was it possible, she wondered, that Ritsuko had written off the Children as dead from the very start of this debacle? It would certainly explain her rather half-hearted attempts to rally Tech Division One toward the goal of rescuing them, and why she was opting for a brute force attack on the Angel while discarding Maya's plan.

_But…no, sempai would never do that,_ the technician thought, though she felt like she was just trying to convince herself.

"If that's all, I have to finish making the arrangements for the bomb drop," Ritsuko said.

"I…no, that's all," Maya said. "I'll just get rid of this." She added, indicating her whiteboard.

Ritsuko nodded absently and headed back inside Tech Division One's tent. Maya grabbed hold of her whiteboard and began dragging it after her, intent on finding an isolated spot outside the field base.

She didn't believe that her beloved sempai had given up on the pilots without really trying to help them, but _why_ Ritsuko was refusing to consider her plan didn't really matter right now. All that mattered was that the Project-E chairperson was intent on throwing nearly a thousand N2 mines into the Angel, which would almost certainly kill the pilots.

"Like hell I'm going to let _that_ happen," Maya said, finally reaching a spot where she felt sufficiently isolated from the other NERV personnel. "Dnoces draobetihw raeppa!"

Instantly, another whiteboard appeared next to her. It was exactly like the one she already had with her, except that it had nothing written upon it.

"Rorrim raeppa!" Maya said.

A very wide, full-length mirror materialized next to her, and Maya quickly got busy arranging it and her two white boards.

Thanks to the nature of equations, she couldn't just write it backwards like she might with a word. After all "2 + 2 = 4" and "4 = 2 + 2" were essentially the same thing when it came to mathematics.

No, if she wanted results, she'd have to reverse the _characters_ she wrote down, not just the equation. Hopefully, that would cause her magic to make the phenomena the equation illustrated to occur, without the need for a weapon that fired fermions.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she grumbled to herself, adjusting the mirror. "Mixing magic and science this way just isn't _natural_."

Well, natural or not, it was her only hope. Maya copied down the reflection of the original formula as quickly as she dared, feeling a great sense of urgency even though it would be hours before Ritsuko could order the bomb drop.

"Okay," Maya breathed, hesitating one backwards number away from finishing the equation. "Here goes…everything." With a stroke of her marker, she completed the equation.

Then…nothing happened. Maya looked around expectantly, but she saw no sign of any change in the Angel or anything else, for that matter.

Then the reason why hit her.

_This equation just says what __**would**__ happen if a Dirac Sea with AT Field properties was blasted with fermions, not that it __**is**__ happening to the Angel!_ She thought.

The tech briefly stared at her whiteboard, contemplating how to make the equation apply to the Angel. An answer quickly came to her, but it seemed so…inelegant.

She rolled her eyes. _Who cares if it's a little crude, so long as it works?_ She asked herself. _Your magic is a science right now, Maya, not an art._

"Ironic as that is," she muttered to herself, uncapping her marker again.

First, she drew a circle, then filled parts of it in, making it a crude representation of the Angel. Then, not trusting that her artistic talent was good enough, she labeled her artwork "htflewt legna."

Finally, she drew an arrow that started from her equation and pointed at the picture.

This time, the results were immediate.

The numbers and symbols on the board instantly turned gold and shone with brilliant light, forcing Maya to turn her gaze away. Beneath her feet, the ground started to tremble.

A great **_crack!_** could be heard all throughout the city, reminding Maya of the time she'd witnessed a 150 year old oak tree break and fall over in the midst of a wind storm. She immediately turned to look up at the zebra-striped ball that floated over the city and saw that large fissures had formed in the sphere. Shafts of blood-red were coming out through the cracks.

"Oh, what did I _do?_" Maya wondered aloud in a small voice.

Then the sphere simply _exploded_, but it wasn't fire that burst forth. Nor was it blood, which part of Maya had expected.

It was _darkness_. An unnatural darkness that refused to yield to the light of the sun billowed outwards with terrifying speed, soon blanketing an even greater area than the Angel's shadow had a moment ago.

And it didn't look like it was anywhere near stopping yet.

Maya turned to flee, even though the Angel was expanding at a much faster rate than she could hope to run. Unfortunately, she tripped before she could make more than a few steps, her panic making her clumsy. The technician frantically tried to get up, but she made the mistake of turning to see how close the darkness was.

And she realized all she had time to do was scream as the wall of blackness swept over her.

* * *

Still trapped inside Evangelion Unit One, Shinji sighed as he checked the watch in his plug suit's glove. He had less than six hours to live now, assuming that no one figured out a way to get the Evangelions out of the Angel.

He sighed again. Thoughts of Maya no longer seemed to ward off thoughts of his impending doom, and time was starting to take on a strange quality; five hours and change felt like both an eternity and an eye blink at once. An eternity because every second he spent inside this metal coffin that smelled like blood, waiting for his own demise, seemed endless. An eye blink because he was fourteen years old, and despite how miserable his life had often been in the past, he wasn't ready to die yet. Not even close.

"Amazing thing, time," Shinji commented to himself. "Only it could allow me to experience the worst of both worlds like this."

He chuckled mirthlessly, wondering if it would hurt, to die. He was starting to lose hope that he would escape this one.

Then the plug shook violently, jolting him from his grim musing. Shinji looked around, but there was nothing to see other than the gray, utilitarian walls of his entry plug. After a moment, the shaking stopped.

_Did I…did I imagine that?_ He wondered.

Shinji didn't think so, but then again, he supposed it was possible. He had, after all, spent the last several hours in this damn plug. The stress and the sensory deprivation were probably working together to make him a little loopy.

He was about to write off the whole experience as merely a trick his mind was playing on him when the scratching sound started. It was muffled; he never would have been able to hear it if everything else wasn't completely silent, and he still had to strain his ears a little. Nevertheless, it was there, and it was coming from all around him. It was like something was scraping against the outside of Unit One.

Shinji decided to briefly bring the Evangelion to full power so he could see what was going on outside. It would shorten the amount of time he had left, but he was too curious to resist. He pressed the button on his control grip.

And immediately he wished that he hadn't. His Evangelion no longer hovered within an infinite sea of darkness. Instead, Shinji now found himself in an apparently endless expanse of redness, which wasn't exactly a big improvement.

However, this wasn't what made him wish he'd never turned on the viewer.

Black…_things_ were all over Unit One's armor, scratching at it with wickedly long claws, searching for a weak point they could exploit.

He screamed, and immediately returned Unit One to life support mode, causing the image on his screens to wink out once more. However, he could still hear the sounds of their horrible claws, and they seemed much louder now than they had only moments before.

"Oh god, the Angel's trying to get in!" he exclaimed, scrambling as far toward the back of the plug as he could get.

Then he realized how useless _that_ action was; if those _things_ got into the plug, he was dead, regardless of his exact position inside the big metal coffin. He managed to relax again, though with great difficulty.

_The damn things looked almost…demonic,_ he thought, then grimaced.

He didn't like the idea, but unfortunately, it was disturbingly apt.

Which was strange, because the Angels normally didn't look like beings of pure evil. Some had looked frightening, most had been bizarre in appearance, and the Fifth Angel had even had a strange beauty about it…but none had ever looked demonic.

It almost made him suspect that the things might not be part of the Angel, except…

_What else would they be?_ He wondered, then shrugged.

"Well, whatever they are, there's no way they can get in here," he told himself. "They can't get in here, they can't get in here…"

Even as he continued his chant in an effort to convince himself, Shinji Ikari curled into a fetal position and silently prayed that when the end came, it wouldn't come from the claws of the things outside.

* * *

Maya groaned as she awoke, picking herself off of the ground slowly. Her body protested the action, but she ignored it and looked around.

Or rather, she tried to. The whole world was pitch dark in every direction she turned.

_My god, am I inside the Angel?_ She wondered.

She had assumed that by inverting the inverted AT field—basically, turning the Angel inside out—she would kill the thing. After all, getting turned inside out would certainly kill _her_.

"But instead it looks like I managed to unleash the Dirac Sea on the rest of Tokyo-3," she sighed. "I _knew_ nothing good would come from mixing science and magic. Emutsoc!"

Maya could feel her clothes shift, the utilitarian NERV uniform vanishing and Zatanna's costume taking its place. She even felt her wand appear in her suddenly gloved hand.

"Dnaw thgil," she said, and a soft blue glow began to emanate from the tip of her wand, illuminating the area around her.

The city still looked the same, so far as she could see, which Zatanna would definitely call a good thing.

_Of course, it's an even better thing that there's actually air in here to breathe_, she thought, looking at her whiteboards and mirror. The writing on the one she'd used for her spell had long ago ceased to glow.

"Can't just leave these lying around," she decided. "Sdraobetihw dna rorrim raeppasid!"

Immediately, they vanished as though they had never been, leaving Zatanna feeling somewhat at loose ends. Now that her plan had failed spectacularly, she wasn't exactly sure what to do next.

_How in the world am I going to fix this mess?_ She wondered.

The growling sound brought her mind to more immediate concerns. Whirling around, Zatanna held her wand out like a flashlight, shining the blue glow on the source of the sound.

She inhaled sharply as she saw that source. A pair of unnatural animals stood on the street not twenty feet away from her, wickedly sharp teeth bared.

They were four legged creatures, with long, lithe bodies that immediately brought to mind the world's predatory giant cats. Sinewy muscles rippled beneath their ebony hides, and startlingly white, glowing eyes glared at her, situated in the beasts' triangular heads. Long, slender tails swiped at the air with agitation.

"What the hell are you?" she asked the things.

They looked vaguely like shadow beasts—largely generic monsters that those who had access to infernal magicks could often summon up. However, she'd never seen a shadow beast with white eyes before.

The two monsters before Zatanna didn't sate her curiosity, however. Instead, they leapt at her, deadly grace exemplified.

"Erif!" she shouted.

A jet of flame so intense it was white at the core burst forth from the tip of her wand, catching the two beasts in mid leap. They released yelps of pain and surprise that sounded vaguely canine as they were consumed by the inferno.

A moment later, two piles of smoking bones fell to the ground. They were all that was left of the beasts. Zatanna winced, wishing she'd picked a more humane way of stopping her attackers.

"What the hell were you guys?" she wondered aloud, poking at their remains with her wand.

The instant she did, the bones all burst into a cloud of black dust, causing Zatanna to yelp in surprise and draw back a step. She quickly regained her composure, though, and peered at the dust intently, half expecting it to reform into the monsters again.

That didn't happen, but nor did it settle like ordinary dust. Instead, it just seemed to fade into the practically palpable darkness that had enshrouded Tokyo-3, becoming one with it.

"They're part of the Angel," she whispered to herself, her mind whirling as the implications of her realization sank in.

She and most of Tokyo-3 were inside the Angel's body—or, more accurately, she had brought the Angel's body outside to the city. Even though it could survive this abuse, its version of an immune system was probably freaking out at the moment.

_So those things were like antibodies or white blood cells, out here to destroy any foreign agents inside the Angel?_ She wondered. She couldn't be certain of this hypothesis, of course, but it fit the available data. Felt right, too, and not just because it would mean what she'd incinerated was merely a giant cell, rather than a live, independent animal.

"But if that's true," she mused aloud, "then…"

Her eyes widened and she took off running. The NERV field base was in big trouble if she didn't get there soon, and she'd be damned if anyone was going to die because her desperate attempt to rescue the pilots didn't work.

She heard a scream in the distance.

"Kcab ot eht dleif esab!" she yelled, giving up on reaching her destination on foot.

Zatanna vanished from her current position, then rematerialized in the center of the field base, a flash of light heralding her arrival. Her stomach heaved; she hated teleporting even more than she hated flying, but she ignored her discomfort and quickly took stock of the situation.

At least a half dozen of the Angel's unique antibodies were wrecking havoc upon the makeshift base, their glowing eyes the only visible part of the ones that were further away from her and her wand's soft luminance.

"Thgil pu eht esab!" she shouted, and several orbs of light appeared in the air above the many tents in the field base, illuminating the carnage.

Unfortunately, it did more than that. The NERV personnel had spent enough time in the darkness for their eyes to have adapted to it, and now they were dazzled by Zatanna's light show. The panicked people were suddenly much less able to evade the predatory beasts that were after them.

"Gninthgil!" she yelled, and a burst of electricity sprang from her wand, blasting one of the beasts and causing it to burst into dust.

She destroyed several more of the monsters, but it quickly became apparent that there were more than she'd originally believed. Within moments, the beasts had realized that she was the only threat to them, and they began to encircle her.

The base went dead silent, save for the low growling of the beasts. Many of the NERV personnel present were armed, but none of them even seemed to be _thinking_ about drawing their weapons and joining the battle. Everyone was too busy staring at the woman in the outrageous costume who'd swooped in from nowhere to save them.

Zatanna raised her wand, eyes darting from one beast to another as she waited for the attack.

"Well?" she said finally. "Come on, none of us have forever here."

As one, the monsters leaped at her, deadly claws extended, ready to draw blood.

Zatanna raised her wand, pointing it skyward. "Gnir fo erif!"

A circle of flame burst into existence around her, and Zatanna could feel the heat wash over her body, causing beads of sweat to form on her brow. She just managed to keep her top hat from getting singed.

The beasts were not so lucky. They realized, an instant before they met their doom, what was going to happen, but there was nothing they could do about it. Their momentum carried them into the wall of fire, and this time, not even bones remained.

The fire quickly burned out, and Zatanna wiped some sweat from her forehead before scanning the base. She didn't see any more of the monsters.

"Is everyone okay?" she asked. "Is anyone hurt?"

For a moment, no one spoke. When someone did break the silence, it wasn't to tell the masked magician that they were all fine.

"Look out!" someone screamed, pointing.

Zatanna turned her head just in time to see another of the beasts launching itself at her from behind. She opened her mouth to utter a spell, but even as she began to form the first syllable, she knew she wouldn't have enough time.

A thunderous bang sounded through the base, and the beast that was trying to pounce on Zatanna was suddenly thrown backwards. It crumpled to the ground, black ichor oozing from a hole in its head. Moments later, it changed into dust and was reabsorbed by the Angel.

Zatanna turned to see Misato, holding her Heckler & Koch in both hands. A thin trail of smoke was rising from the barrel of the pistol.

"Nice shot," the magician said.

"Thanks, stranger," Misato replied pointedly.

Taking refuge in her character (her father would've been so proud), the sorceress took off her hat and offered the Ops Director a jaunty little bow. "You may call me Zatanna," she said.

"Well, Zatanna, do you know what's going on here?" Misato asked.

"The Angel appears to have changed form," she said, putting her hat back on her head. "You stay here, and I'll see what I can do about this situation."

"Now wait a minute," Misato objected at once. "NERV _exists_ to fight the Angels. We're not just going to sit here and—"

"Peels," Zatanna commanded, waving her wand.

All around the magician, the NERV personnel began to slump. Within seconds, they started to lie down on the ground they stood upon, curling up as they fell into a deep slumber.

Misato resisted the spell much better than the others around her, but she was still succumbing. Her eyelids began to droop immediately, and she yawned enormously.

"Wha? What are…you…doing…?" the Ops Director demanded drowsily.

Zatanna didn't answer, and the purple-haired woman began to advance toward the magician. However, she only managed to take a few steps before she fell to her knees, overwhelmed by a sudden wave of tiredness.

"It's okay, Major, I've got this one," she said softly, reaching out to catch the suddenly unconscious woman before she could fall face first on the pavement. She grunted as she supported the larger woman's weight. "Geeze, Misato, you might want to lay off the beer!"

_God knows if I had __**that**__ figure, I wouldn't mess it up by overindulging!_ She mentally added as she gently lowered the other woman to the ground.

The Ops Director responded with a loud, unladylike snore. Zatanna rolled her eyes.

"Dleihs eht esab," she said, raising her wand, and a magical barrier shimmered into existence around the collection of tents.

Zatanna briefly surveyed her handiwork, then gave a small nod. "That should hold those things out for a while," she decided aloud, then looked out at the darkness outside the little island of light she'd turned the field base into. "Okay, Angel, you have some kind of weird immune system, but I _know_ you have a 'heart', and I'm coming for it. Ekat em ot eht s'legnA eroc!"

There was a flash of light, and Zatanna vanished from the NERV field base.

* * *

When she rematerialized, the first thing the sorceress had to do was force down the urge to vomit. Teleporting a second time in such a short period of time made the experience worse.

_Ugh, a few more of those today, and I'll throw my guts up for sure,_ she thought.

After finally convincing her stomach not to rebel on her, Zatanna looked around, raising her glowing wand. She was standing on a sidewalk in Tokyo-3, not too far from the field base.

"Weird," she muttered to herself.

There was no specific place where she expected to find the Angel's core, but she'd thought that wherever it was, the location would be significant somehow. This seemed like a completely random spot in the city.

_Wait a minute,_ she thought as it finally hit her.

Unless she was seriously off, the spot Zatanna was standing on was almost directly above the NERV pyramid down in the Geofront.

"Well, I guess that clears that up," she muttered. "Now where is the—?"

"_**Who are you?**_" a low, whispery voice demanded.

Zatanna whirled, and her eyes widened at what she saw. This wasn't what she expected before.

A figure stood before her, and while it was roughly humanoid, it definitely was _not_ human. It seemed to be made from coherent darkness that was even thicker and denser than what was currently covering Tokyo-3. A hooded cloak that had the same black and white pattern as the Angel's spherical shadow hung over the darkness. It had no real face to speak of, but two circles of eerie blue light floated within its head, acting as approximations of eyes.

_What the hell?_ She thought, stunned.

This was the Angel's core, of that she had no doubt. But she never would have expected it to become anthropomorphized like this. Zatanna hadn't fully understood the equation she'd unleashed, but she knew there was no way a blast of exotic particles could have caused _this_.

_It's my magic that did this, it __**has**__ to have been,_ she decided. _Damn mystic forces created a dark lord for me to battle!_

"_**Who are you?**_" the thing demanded again, interrupting her thoughts.

_Showmanship, Maya,_ a voice in her head urged her. She decided to ignore the fact that it sounded disturbingly like her father. _This entity might be the core of an Angel, but it looks like a demon, and you know how to deal with those._

"I am Zatanna," she replied. "I'm the one who turned you inside-out. What is _your_ name?"

Its blue "eyes" narrowed.

"_**I will tell you nothing**_," it hissed.

Zatanna waved her wand through the air; a loud crack, like the report of a pistol, sounded, echoing through the artificial canyons created by the city's skyscrapers. The Angel flinched; it was slight, but the magician noticed it.

"I am Zatanna, _Homo Magi_ and wielder of mystic forces. I command you to _tell me your name!_" she yelled, her words formal even if her tone was not.

"_**…Leliel**_," it answered.

"Leliel, where are the Evangelions?" she demanded. "What have you done with them?"

"_**The shadows of the All-Father remain **__**inside**__** me**_," the Angel hissed.

Zatanna's eyebrows went up. "There's _another_ Dirac Sea inside of you?" she asked. "Even now?"

"_**We are not as limited as the spawn of Lilith**_," Leliel replied smugly.

"Let them go," Zatanna order sternly, pointing her wand at the Angel. "Let them go right now."

"_**No**_," the Angel hissed, and this time it sounded amused by her threats.

When she heard the growls, the magician knew why; the Angel's immune system had come to defend its strangely personified core. There had to be at least twenty of the vaguely feline beasts.

"I don't have time for you!" Zatanna exclaimed. "Cigam stlob tsalb sretsnom!"

Tongues of green energy exploded forth from the tip of her wand, each one streaking straight toward one of the dark beasts charging toward her. They were no more able to resist her powers now than when she had faced them at the field base, and they were quickly reduced to dust by her attack.

Unfortunately, they had only been distractions. Zatanna turned back toward the Angel to see it rushing toward her, its striped cloak billowing out, looking like huge, improbably colored bat wings.

She yelped and tried to run, knowing she didn't have time to utter even the simplest of spells. For a moment, she even thought that she'd get away; the Angel was fast, but she had the kind of adrenaline rush that only came from sheer terror on her side.

Then she felt it.

Some invisible force like a gravitational pull was trying to drag her toward the Angel's core. It wasn't that powerful, but it was just enough to slow her down, and that was all the Angel needed.

It pounced, throwing itself at her as if to tackle her. However, the thing of darkness didn't crash into her like a being of flesh and blood would have. Instead, it swallowed her whole.

Zatanna released one loud, terrified shriek before she disappeared into the void.

The next thing she knew, the whole universe was darkness, a darkness far more profound than anything that existed in the natural world, than anything that existed outside the space within the Angel's core; for it felt like this darkness was trying to get _inside _of her, invading her body and her very soul.

Zatanna felt like she was choking on it, like it had supplanted the air around her. She flailed out wildly with her arms and legs, but she could find no purchase anywhere. Her universe was as empty as outer space.

Emptier, in fact. At least in space, there were stars—little points of light—in the distance. Here there was nothing but darkness.

Then something intangible slammed into her mind with the force of a battering ram. An ordinary human wouldn't have been able to detect the trespass until it had breached the interior of her consciousness, but Zatanna was no ordinary human. She was experienced and knowledgeable when it came to intruding into and tinkering with the minds of others, and she could tell when someone was trying to do it with her own mind.

_My god, is this what I did to Commander Ikari?_ She wondered, desperately putting up defenses.

The Angel hesitated for a moment, seemingly surprised that the magician could put up any resistance at all. Then it redoubled its efforts, attacking with renewed ferocity.

It was too alien, too powerful. Zatanna's defenses crumbled, and the Angel slipped into her head.

**WHAT ARE YOU DOING?**

Zatanna gasped. The booming voice was one she felt more than heard with her ears, and it seemed to rumble through her whole body like a low, powerful vibration. It was a voice that demanded an answer.

Unfortunately, she didn't quite know how to give it one.

_What __**am**__ I doing?_ She wondered helplessly, mentally reviewing the events of the past few months with new eyes.

After being drafted by an old and malfunctioning AI, she had launched herself on a campaign to single-handedly bring down a conspiracy that had bamboozled the UN and the various national governments of the world.

It was ridiculous. She was a mosquito trying to kill an elephant. Sure, she could piss her enemy off—and probably get squashed for her efforts—but she could never, _ever_ hope to win.

**WHAT DO YOU FIGHT WITH?**

"Magic," Zatanna breathed shamefully.

The Ibuki family talent, which she had refused to embrace because it would cost her the ability to plot her own course in life. The power she had once repudiated in the harshest of terms, choosing to embrace science instead.

Faced with an impossible mission, she had been desperate enough to utilize her forsaken gift. And for what? Odds which were slightly better, yet still unbeatable. SEELE had their own wielders of magic at their disposal. Even if she could best Klarion, another would take his place, and then another after him, until someone defeated her.

In the end, she had betrayed herself for nothing.

**WHY DON'T YOU JUST GIVE UP?**

Give up? The idea was absurd! It was ridiculous! It was…

_…not bad, actually,_ she thought, once she really started to weigh the option in her mind.

What difference could it possibly make in the grand scheme of things? Either she gave up now, or one of SEELE's attack dogs killed her later. The former would probably be far less painful. Plus, it would spare her any further indignity from dressing in her absurd costume and once more using powers she'd sworn never to touch again.

And she was _so_ tired all of a sudden.

Her eyelids started to droop. _A nap sounds like a good idea,_ she mused.

Somehow, Zatanna had the feeling that if she went to sleep in this place, she'd never wake up. Yet that prospect wasn't nearly as alarming as it should have been. In fact, it sounded nice. It would be a relief to have no worries or burdens any longer.

Her eyes drifted completely shut.

Yet her mind's eye did not. And _that_ suddenly focused upon three children, three incredibly brave children who stood on the cusp of adulthood and yet shouldered burdens that would have _crushed_ many a professional soldier. Three children whose pasts held enormous amounts of tragedy, and whose futures promised more pain yet.

One of those children in particular stood out to her.

_Shinji!_ She thought, her eyes popping open. _Shinji's still trapped. They __**all**__ are!_

Maybe she would lose to one of SEELE's minions in the end, but if her continued struggles could at least spare the pilots a death in this bizarre and miserable place, then it was worth it.

"I won't give up!" she shouted in the blackness. "Thgil!"

Golden radiance blossomed into existence around the tip of her wand, far more brilliant than the soft blue glow that she usually called forth.

**NO! STOP THAT!**

For a moment, Zatanna felt a strong compulsion to douse her light, to obey. That was the Angel's power, she realized, persuasion. Once you were caught within it, it could talk you into surrendering your will to live.

_If you let it,_ she thought.

"Thgil!" she yelled again, and now her entire body began to shine with a bright light.

**NO! NO!**

"Yes!" she shouted. "Thgil! _Tel ereht eb thgil_!"

The sorceress became a miniature sun, light streaking out in every direction from her, burning away the darkness in the realm within the Angel's core. The universe around her shook and—

* * *

—Zatanna was released from the anthropomorphized version of its core, stumbling as she abruptly found herself on a sidewalk in Tokyo-3. Dazed, she looked around, seeing no sign of the darkness masquerading as a man in a striped cloak.

Then she heard a faint tapping sound from behind her. She turned, and saw a red orb about the size of the average marble sitting on the ground.

A drop of sweat ran down the back of her head.

_It __**can't**__ be that easy,_ she thought.

Then she shrugged and stomped down on the little red sphere. It crunched beneath her foot as though it was made of glass.

The light of the sun suddenly began to penetrate the dark cloud that had settled over Tokyo-3.

"Did…did that actually work?" Zatanna asked no one in particular as she watched what appeared to be the Angel's death throes.

The blackness all around her—for lack of a better word—_crumbled_. It suddenly seemed to become more like smoke than a ubiquitous veil that covered the whole world, and that darkness began to streak away up into the sky, leaving things at the city's ground level back to normal at last.

The "smoke" all seemed to be streaming toward one point, which Zatanna thought was the area where the Angel's shadow had hovered after devouring the Evangelions.

"Oh please, don't come back to life or something," she muttered under her breath.

The darkness continued to swirl together, condensing into a very small area, so that Zatanna could barely even see it. The physics of what she was witnessing remained beyond her, but intuition told her that so much…whatever the Angel was made up of, couldn't possibly be packed into such a tiny amount of space.

"It's going to explode," she predicted.

She was right, up to a point, but the explosion wasn't anything like she would have predicted. Rather than the violent release of force and fire she expected, the Evangelions somehow managed to burst forth from the tiny space. It was _impossible_, so impossible that Zatanna didn't quite believe it, even after witnessing it with her own two eyes.

Yet, not caring one bit whether she believed it or not, all three Evangelions crashed down on the streets, sending a mild tremor through the whole city. The trio of giant war machines then collapsed to the ground, limp and unmoving.

Above them, above the whole city, the clear sky was a brilliant orange with the light of the setting sun. The Angel was dead.

That realization wasn't quite on Maya's mind.

"Oh, geeze, I have to get back to the base before everyone starts waking up!" she exclaimed. "Krow sehtolc!"

There was a brief puff of white smoke, and when it cleared, her costume had been replaced by her NERV technician's uniform, leaving Maya Ibuki standing in Zatanna's place.

"Kcab ot eht dleif esab!"

With a flash of white light, the magician vanished, heading back to her day job.

When Maya rematerialized, she found herself in the middle of the field base, and saw that several people were already starting to stir into wakefulness. After letting out a quick "eep!" she quickly threw herself to the ground and pretended to be unconscious.

A few minutes later, she was shaken "awake" by Aoba's hand on her shoulder.

"Wha?" she groaned, doing her best to sound like she'd just woken up from a long, deep sleep. "Wha'happened?" she asked.

"We all had out butts saved by a woman in fishnet stockings," Aoba answered flippantly. "Here, let me help you up." He added, offering his hand.

She took it and allowed him to hoist her to her feet. "Are the pilots all right? What happened to them?" she asked.

Aoba pointed to the great, silent forms of the Evangelions in the distance. "They're out, somehow. Rescue teams are already on the way."

"Good," Maya breathed, relief flooding her mind.

"Yup," Aoba said. "Now we get to do the unglamorous part: packing up all this equipment so we can go home."

* * *

For the next several hours, the field base was consumed by a barely organized chaos. Everyone was reeling from the events of the day, but they were professionals. They rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Which wasn't to say that it was an easy job. NERV had dragged out an immense amount of hardware for use in their hastily thrown together field base, and it all had to be packed away and loaded onto trucks.

Earlier, the pilots' plight had filled everyone with a driving sense of urgency. Now that the Children had been saved, however, that was notably absent . A short lived feeling of jubilation had followed the Angel's defeat, but it had soon faded, replaced by a muted, disquieted atmosphere.

Part of it was the experience of watching the entire city become engulfed in darkness, of course. Getting attacked by the shadow beasts was also a factor. Yet the thing that seemed to have most disturbed everyone was getting knocked unconscious by their mysterious rescuer. The NERV personnel were speaking about little else.

_I guess I can't blame everyone for being a little freaked out by that, but I just wanted to make sure nobody left the shield while I destroyed the core,_ Maya thought.

"Heck of a day, hey, Maya?" Makato asked her, abruptly pulling her from her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I guess it was," Maya answered. "I'm not sure we'll ever know what really happened."

"Probably not," Makoto replied, "but you can bet the brass will tell everyone that NERV is responsible for killing this Angel."

Maya chuckled weakly. "For sure," she said.

"Well, it looks like we're just about done here, thank goodness," Makoto observed, looking around the remains of the base.

Quite a lot of stuff still remained, but the sensitive or delicate equipment—such as the advanced scanners they had used to try and take readings off the Angel and any hard drives with classified information on them—had been disassembled, packed away, and sent back to headquarters. The things that were left, such as the tents, could be hauled away without the aid of NERV's skilled technicians and scientists.

"Yeah, if we're lucky, we might even get home in time to catch some sleep," Maya commented with a grimace, throwing a morose look up at the moon, which was high in the night sky.

Makoto smirked. "Well, someone's optimistic," he said. "So…can we go yet?"

Maya chuckled weakly. "Almost. I just need to know where Dr. Akagi wanted us to send the MAGI Uplink Unit. I don't know if it's supposed to go to headquarters or back to Matsushiro."

"Uh-oh," Makoto stammered, looking sheepish.

"What?" Maya asked, eyes narrowing.

"I told Dr. Akagi it was already loaded up and on its way," he said. "Since it was the last thing Tech Div One needs to worry about, she decided to head home."

Maya frowned. It was unusual for Dr. Akagi to clock out from work early, even by a minute or two; the tech would have expected her sempai to remain at the field base until all her subordinates had been officially dismissed. Then she gave a mental shrug; it _had_ been a very long day for all of them, and there wasn't anything left that required the Project-E chairperson's supervision.

Except the decision on where to send that last damn piece of equipment.

"Which way did she go?" Maya asked.

Makoto pointed. "I just spoke with her. You should be able to catch up if you hurry," he said.

Maya took off at a jog, weaving through the remaining tents. Seeing a brief flash of white, she increased her pace, soon coming within sight of the bottle blonde. She was about to call out to her sempai when she realized that Ritsuko was approaching a car that was waiting at the edge of the field base.

Without really thinking about it, Maya quickly hid behind one of the tents, carefully peeking at Ritsuko and the vehicle. In a moment, the driver's side door opened, and the Commander stepped out.

The techie's eyes widened. _What's he doing here?_

Ikari approached Ritsuko, and they spoke for a moment. Maya was too far away to hear the words, though.

Then the Commander placed a hand on Ritsuko's waist. It was a more intimate gesture than the tech had ever seen either one of them pay the other before she had wiped Gendo's mind, and the meaning was unmistakable. Gendo led Ritsuko to the passenger side door, and she climbed inside. Then he got back behind the wheel; moments later, the car drove off.

Maya just stood where she was, feeling shell-shocked.

_She…she got back together with the Commander!_ She thought, a great frustration and a feeling of helplessness rising up within her. _Why in the world would she __**do**__ that? I gave her a second chance! A chance to escape him!_

She knew, logically, that having his memory wiped would have significant effects upon Ikari's personality. That he had reached out to his son earlier proved that much.

However, she still couldn't believe that her mentor—the woman Maya had always viewed as being so smart and so strong—would willingly go back into the arms of a man she _knew_ was capable of destroying the world for his own selfish reasons. Not when she had a golden opportunity to leave him with no difficulty whatsoever.

_Was sempai ever anything like the person I always believed she was?_ Maya wondered forlornly.

* * *

Meanwhile, Makoto was impatiently waiting to hear word from Maya on whether or not she had been successful in catching up to Dr. Akagi. He felt like he was dead on his feet and dearly wanted to head home, but he didn't dare depart until he was certain they were free to go.

_I should have gone with her,_ he mused.

"Lieutenant Makoto?"

"Sakura?" he said, looking up.

"Do you know whether we've been dismissed or not yet, sir?" she asked.

"Uh…no," he confessed. "Maya should be back any second to let us know, though."

"Speak of the devil," Sakura said, noticing as Dr. Akagi's right hand woman approached.

As Maya drew near, both technicians noticed that the petite brunette had a very downtrodden appearance to her. She was staring at the ground, and her movements were very slow. She looked depressed.

"Maya?" Makoto said.

She ignored him.

"Maya?" he called, more loudly this time.

Maya started and looked up at him, seemingly surprised to find him there, right where she'd left him.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Can we go?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure," Maya said, as though she hadn't really heard the question.

Nevertheless, it was good enough for the other two techs. Makoto made a quick announcement that Tech Division One was finished for the evening, and the various technicians quickly began to disperse.

_Save Maya_, Makoto noted. The petite brunette seemed content to just stand where she was, looking sad.

Sakura happened to be heading in the same direction that he was, and he turned to her and asked, "Um, between you and me, has Maya been acting a little…flaky today?"

"Well, yes, I guess so," Sakura said. "I noticed that she seemed to get very fixated on any conversation anybody had about that Zatanna person."

"Yeah, I noticed that, too," Makoto agreed.

"The really odd thing is the way she was just…here when everybody was waking up," Sakura added.

Makoto frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Well, Lieutenant Ibuki was assigned to some special project or another by Dr. Akagi," Sakura explained. "I've barely seen her all day. She came back for a minute to ask where Dr. Akagi was, but she vanished again right afterwards. But when everybody's waking up, she's simply here."

"Hmm, that is weird," Makoto said, frowning. Then he shrugged. "Well, I'm sure it's nothing…"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** Here we have Maya facing off against the Twelfth Angel, or, as I like to call it, the Happy Fun Ball. If you're going to do this one at all (as opposed to replaying canon), I think it's generally accepted that it should be some sort of long, elaborate mind screw.

But frankly, I've written a number of those so far, and I'm sick of doing them, at least for the moment. So I came up with this, and kept the bit toward the end where the Angel "eats" our heroine fairly brief.

One more thing I felt I should mention here is the techno-babble. While Maya's plan was indeed techno-_babble_, the terms she throws around are quite real; I invented none of them. Paul Dirac was likewise a real person. The character of Professor Williams, however, is fictitious. Wikipedia states that Dirac had two daughters, but I don't know if either of them ever had children.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta readers as well. And happy New Year to everyone.

Edit: Also, special thanks to EarthScorpion, who helped me make Maya's original plan make more sense.

* * *

Omakes!

The Personal Hell of Asuka Langley Soryu

Or…

Asuka's Experience in the Twelfth Angel

The Second Child didn't know how she'd ended up on this isolated little stretch of beach, but frankly, she really didn't give a damn. She was happy as a clam right where she was.

_And why shouldn't I be?_ She thought. _The sun's hot, the water's warm, I look awesome in my new bikini…and I'm with the perfect man._

"I'm so glad we got to spend time together like this, Kaji," she said.

Sitting next to her on the white sand, Kaji grinned roguishly at her. "So am I, Asuka-chan," he said. "I don't know _what_ I was thinking, giving Misato a second look when I had a _real_ woman right in front of me."

"I'm just glad you realized," Asuka said softly, gazing deeply into Kaji's eyes.

They moved closer to one another, as if drawn by a magnetic pull, Asuka closed her eyes and pursed her lips, her heart racing.

Then the moment was rudely interrupted by someone kicking sand on her.

"Hey!" Asuka yelled, angrily pulling back and looking around, searching for the person who had dared to mess up the perfect moment.

Her glaring eyes soon settled upon a familiar blue-haired girl, who stood before them, wearing a white one piece bathing suit.

"Rei!" Asuka snarled. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I might give Kaji-san the chance to be with a real woman," Rei answered. "Namely, me."

Asuka released a bark of laughter. "You? Puh-_leeze_! What have you got that _I _haven't got?"

"Well, for one thing, there's more than one of me," a second Rei said, appearing from seemingly nowhere at the first Rei's right.

"Ooo, more than one of them," Kaji crooned.

"Kaji!" Asuka exclaimed, turning to look back at him, a betrayed expression on her face.

That turned out to be a mistake, because when she turned back to the blue interloper, she suddenly found herself face to face with at least two dozen duplicates of Rei Ayanami. Asuka released a yelp of surprise.

The pale skinned little harlots immediately began to swarm around Kaji.

"I am the Rei Ayanami who can make you feel things you've _never_ experienced before," one of them promised him.

"I am the Rei Ayanami who will do things for you that the Second would _never_ do," another said.

"And I am the Rei Ayanami who will…" she whispered the last part in Kaji's ear.

"Wow," the spy said, eyes wide. "Excuse me for a minute, Asuka-chan. I have to go behind that sand dune over there and…discuss something with Rei. Probably for several hours."

"What? No! Kaji!"

Asuka tried to get over to him, but this time she found herself block by two of the Rei's. The pair of them tackled her to the sand and pinned her down. Asuka struggled to get free, but it was two against one, and Rei was surprisingly strong.

"We are the Rei Ayanami's who will hold you here until it is our turn to do unspeakable things with Kaji-san," they said in unison.

"_No!"_ Asuka yelled. "_Noooooo!"_

* * *

The Man in Black

_Guest Omake by Ultra Sonic 007_

The base went dead silent, save for the low growling of the beasts. Many of the NERV personnel present were armed, but none of them even seemed to be _thinking_ about drawing their weapons and joining the battle. Everyone was too busy staring at the woman in the outrageous costume who'd swooped in from nowhere to save them.

Zatanna raised her wand, eyes darting from one beast to another as she waited for the attack.

"Well?" she said finally. "Come on, none of us have forever here."

As one, the monsters leaped at her, deadly claws extended, ready to draw blood.

Zatanna raised her wand, pointing it skyward. "Gnir fo erif!"

What happened next was…unexpected.

Instead of an actual ring of fire, an American man dressed in black appeared, wielding a guitar.

…_huh?_ Zatanna blinked, wondering how her spell could have backfired. Even the Angel's antibodies seemed perplexed.

The man strummed the strings, and the sound of horns accompanied him as he sung in a deep voice. "_I fell in, to a burnin' ring of fire! I went down, down, down! And the flames went higher!_"

Instantaneously, every beast was shrouded in an individual ring of fire. Their yelps were drowned out by the man's crooning. "_And it burns, burns, burns! The ring of fire! And it burns, burns, burns! The ring of fire!_"

The flames receded; not even a speck of dust remained.

The Man in Black turned towards Zatanna, giving the woman a brief thumbs-up before disappearing in a flash of smoke.

Zatanna – who was certainly pleased with the results – made a mental note to check and see if Johnny Cash was a _Homo Magi_.

* * *

Roadkill

_Guest Omake by Ultra Sonic 007_

(Mike313's note: This omake is the continuation of another one written by Ultra Sonic 007, which may be found in Chapter 4 of my fic "Superwomen of Eva 2: The Ultimate Rush.")

"_**The shadows of the All-Father remain **__**inside**__** me**_," the Angel hissed.

Zatanna's eyebrows went up. "There's _another_ Dirac Sea inside of you?" she asked. "Even now?"

"_**We are not as limited as the spawn of Lilith**_," Leliel replied smugly.

"Let them go," Zatanna order sternly, pointing her wand at the Angel. "Let them go right now."

"_**No**_," the Angel hissed, and this time it sounded amused by her threats.

Suddenly, before anything else occurred, there was a brief flash, accompanied by a ripping sound. The core of Leliel boggled at the noise. "_**What's going-?**_"

_**CRUNCH.**_

Zatanna couldn't help but wince as the Angel's personified core was flattened by two speedsters grinding to a halt.

To the magician's surprise, one was a young girl clad in a form-fitting outfit of red and yellow – with lightning bolts being an obvious motif – and the other was a purple-haired woman sitting on a sleek red motorcycle. _That's the Operations Director…and yet not!_ Whoever this doppelganger was, she wasn't the same Misato Katsuragi currently sleeping at the NERV field base.

The younger girl turned towards Zatanna. "Say, we're not interrupting anything are we?"

Zatanna glanced quickly at the flattened core of the Angel, noting that the darkness in the sky was beginning to dissipate. "…no. No you're not."

"Awesome!" The girl turned back towards Not!Misato. "So, that's another tie. Where to now?"

The purple-haired woman smirked. "I say we try three more universes."

The Flash grinned. "Sounds like a plan!"

Yellow electricity crackled; the last thing that Zatanna heard before the two vanished was a crack and the roar of a motorcycle engine.

_...huh._ Looking at the dissipating core of the Angel, Maya decided that she wouldn't complain.


	9. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eight:** Clash of the Magicians

It was amazing how quickly things could change in Tokyo-3, Shinji decided.

Not very long ago, the most bizarre Angel to date had appeared in the city and swallowed all three Evangelions, trapping the pilots inside a hellish, surreal prison. Only hours after that, the Angel had released a flood of darkness into the rest of the city and had nearly killed all the NERV personnel looking for a way to destroy it.

The real kicker was that the Angel apparently would have succeeded in its quest if not for the abrupt appearance of a mysterious female magician wearing fishnet stockings.

_But everything's so normal today,_ Shinji thought, silently looking at his tutor while she looked over his answers to the worksheet she'd made up for him.

After all, what could be more mundane than schoolwork?

"There," Maya said, putting down the pencil she'd been using to check off his answers. "Done."

"So?" Shinji asked anxiously. "How did I do?"

"Perfect score, Shinji," she told him with a smile. "You didn't get a single question wrong."

He blinked, shocked. "Whoa, really?" he asked.

"Yup," she said, handing it back to him, "I knew you'd be able to do a lot better once you had someone actually taking the time to explain all of this to you."

Shinji smiled bashfully, embarrassed by the praise. "Thank you, Maya," he said. "My grades actually have gone up a lot lately, and it's all thanks to you. Um, is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Maya smirked. "Shinji, part of why I'm doing this is to pay _you_ back for saving the world," she answered.

"Oh," Shinji replied, not quite sure what else to say to that.

"So, after that score," she said, holding up the worksheet, "I'd say we can call today's tutoring session finished. Would you like a cup of tea before you head out, Shinji?"

"That would be very nice. Thank you," he said politely.

Not long ago, he would have declined the offer and made a hasty retreat, because he wouldn't want to be a bother. Lately, however, he'd been less afraid of inadvertently imposing on her.

_It's like she's not just my tutor anymore, like she's really…my friend,_ Shinji thought, smiling warmly as Maya put on the kettle.

"So, how are you doing lately, Shinji?" the tech asked. "I understand that being trapped inside the Angel was quite an unpleasant experience."

The Third Child shivered at the mention of that ordeal. "It was…bad," he admitted. "The first couple of nights after that, I had a lot of nightmares about it. I think Asuka did, too, even though she'd never admit it."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Maya said softly.

"No, no, it's fine," Shinji said, forcing a smile. "I've been sleeping a lot better lately."

"Why don't we talk about something a little more pleasant?" she suggested. "How's school?"

"Oh, um, well, like I told you grades are up by a lot," Shinji began. "Um, let's see, what else is happening…?"

He spoke for a few minutes about the goings on at Tokyo-3 Municipal Junior High School, telling her what his friends Toji and Kensuke had been up to, as well as how his class kept shrinking as people continued to leave the city.

"It's that way all over Tokyo-3," Maya agreed as she poured a cup for Shinji and then one for herself. "The whole city's turning into one big ghost town."

"Yeah," he agreed as she sat down.

"So, tell me, Shinji, is there a special someone in your life?" the brunette asked him with an uncharacteristically impish smile.

"H-Huh? No," he stammered. "Why do you even ask?"

Maya shrugged. "I was just wondering," she said. "I thought that a nice young man like you would have a few girls' interest. I'm sure being an EVA pilot can't hurt."

"I…don't spend a lot of time with the girls in my class," Shinji said. "Well, except for Asuka and Ayanami, I guess. And no, I'm not going out with either of them, or anything."

"Do like either of them?" she asked.

"N-No," Shinji stammered, his face turning dark red as he blushed. "Could we please not talk about this?"

Maya couldn't hold back a smirk. "Sorry, Shinji," she said. "You know, you should really play it cool more when people ask you questions that make you nervous. I don't think the Major would tease you nearly so much if it wasn't so easy to make you go to pieces."

"I'll try," Shinji grumbled. "So, what about _you_?"

"Me?" Maya asked.

"Yes, you," the Third Child said. "Are you seeing anyone?" he asked, trying to ignore the hope welling up inside him that the techie wasn't.

"No, I haven't had time for dating in a long time," Maya said, shaking her head. "My work schedule's been too crazy for it ever since the Angels started showing up."

"Is there anyone you _want_ to date?" Shinji pressed. "Um, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, of course." He added quickly.

To Maya's surprise, the first answer that leapt to her mind was that she wouldn't mind going to dinner and a movie with Shinji himself. However, she quickly squelched the idea. He was too young for her, even if he was cute, and nice, and sweet…

_Okay, stop now,_ she commanded herself sternly.

"Maya?" Shinji asked as her silence drew out to several seconds.

"Sorry, Shinji, I was just spaced out for a second there," she said.

"That okay," he told her, "and like I said, you don't have to answer me. It was a pretty personal question."

"No, I grilled you, so it's only fair that I reciprocate," Maya said, coming to a snap decision that she could trust Shinji with some of the more personal facts about herself. "Up until recently, I had this huge crush on Dr. Akagi."

Shinji blinked. "Dr. Akagi?" he echoed. "Then you're—"

The Third Child abruptly clapped his hands over his mouth, all too aware of how rude what he was about to say would sound.

Maya gave him a small smile. "I'm bisexual, Shinji," she said. "I find both men and women attractive."

"Oh," he said awkwardly. "I see. Okay, well, um, more power to you." He added lamely. He had no issue with Maya's orientation, but he didn't quite know how he was supposed to react to the information.

The poor boy looked so uncomfortable that Maya couldn't help but laugh. "You're a really nice guy, Shinji," she commented.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly, as though he was afraid it was a trap.

"Well, I've told a couple of other guys that about me before," she said. "And what they always seem to hear is 'Why yes, I _would_ like to have a three-way with you and that other woman you think is cute!' And the fact is, I'm just not that kinky."

Shinji choked on his tea.

"Sorry, Shinji," she said. "I guess that a little too much information."

"Maybe," he said, then took one last drink from his teacup, draining it. "Um, I should probably be going, anyway."

"All right, but please, don't tell anyone about me. I like to keep it quiet," Maya said, turning serious. "I wasn't really kidding about what I said before. A lot of people have thought that just because I happen to be attracted to both genders, it automatically also makes me some kind of pervert, and I'm really not."

"I won't tell, Maya," Shinji promised seriously. He wasn't sure he'd wanted to know that about her, but all the same, he felt rather touched that she trusted him with such intimate knowledge of herself. "I'll see you later."

* * *

Watching the Third Child from her window as he walked away from the apartment building she called home, Maya sighed softly. She wasn't quite sure why she had told Shinji that about herself. It wasn't knowledge she shared lightly, and in the past, she had always spent days, if not weeks, debating the matter with herself before taking that step.

Yet with Shinji, it had taken her all of ten seconds to make the decision. She didn't know why that was, exactly. All of a sudden, she had just…wanted him to know who she was.

_As odd as that sounds,_ she thought.

He'd reacted to the discovery about as well as she could have hoped for, not judging her or becoming repulsed. It had been a long time since she'd told someone that about her and gotten nothing stronger than surprise in response.

It almost made her want to tell him that she could do magic, too. Almost.

"He's such a nice young man," she muttered softly to herself. "He doesn't deserve everything's that's happened to him."

She continued to follow the EVA pilot with her eyes as he walked away, at least until he happened to pass by an unmarked black van that was parked less than a block away from her building.

Maya's expression darkened at she saw it; the van wasn't exactly subtle, and it had been parked there almost since the battle with the Twelfth Angel. Even if she hadn't gone and investigated it a few days ago, she would've suspected that it was Section Two.

_If I ever find out who started that rumor that I'm Zatanna, I'll kill him,_ she decided, giving the van one last, hateful glare before she retreated into her apartment.

Of course, it was really her own fault; she shouldn't have made it seem as though she was waking up along with everyone at the field base when, so far as everyone knew, Maya Ibuki hadn't been there when Zatanna had used magic to knock all the NERV personnel out. Somebody had put the pieces together, told another person about it, and the rumor had been born.

_Which is the reason I have those stupid goons keeping watch on me!_ She thought venomously.

She'd originally planned to wait them out, to just keep quiet and be a good little girl until they went away. However, she couldn't bring herself to do that anymore, not after her latest rendezvous with Shinji. Not when she knew that Klarion seemed to have his number.

_I'll just have to be careful,_ she decided. _And if one of them spots me or something, I can wipe his short term memory._

Maya was struck by how casually she apparently viewed erasing a man's memory, but it wasn't like she would completely blank out a Section Two agent's personal history, like she had with the Commander. Besides, that was just a last resort, anyway.

"Time to go brat hunting," she decided.

* * *

Two hours later found Zatanna lying in wait outside of the apartment building where Klarion Bleak currently resided. Determined though she was to confront him, she knew better than to invade the home of another _Homo Magi._ It was a given that he'd have set up a web of defensive enchants to protect him in the place where he slept.

She had to wait for him to leave, a task that was turning out to be much more easily said than done.

_Who knew the kid would be spending a quiet night at home?_ She wondered, yawning. _I was so sure that he'd come out, if only so he could go raise hell somewhere to keep himself amused._

The mistress of magic was just starting to consider going home for the night when the front door opened and her quarry himself stepped outside. Something seemed…off about his appearance to her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. However, after waiting so long for him to emerge, she barely cared.

_Finally,_ she thought.

The boy walked down the front stoop of his apartment building, picked a direction, and proceeded to head down the otherwise deserted sidewalk. Zatanna waited for a few moments, then emerged from her hiding place in the shadows and began to follow him.

She only hoped he couldn't hear her pounding heart as she crept after him, waiting until he reached an out of the way spot where she could engage him.

Zatanna had never fought another _Homo Magi_ before, aside from a couple of practice duels with her sister when they were both children. Her father had fought scores of magical battles in his time, and she assumed that Natsume had to have a few beneath her belt by now. Unlike Maya, the elder Ibuki sister had gone into the family business, and quite happily, at that.

_Relax,_ she commanded herself in an effort to calm down. _You can do this so long as you don't panic._ _The Ibuki's are very powerful sorcerers, and Klarion's just a kid._

Unfortunately, that didn't reassure her very much; Shinji and the other Evangelion pilots were the same age as Klarion, and _they_ had all pulled out feats in combat that many adult soldiers wouldn't be capable of performing. She expected the agent SEELE sent to be of much the same caliber.

_Pull it together, girl! _She scolded herself. _Unless you make this brat clock out, he'll just keep pursuing Shinji._

Zatanna was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she almost didn't notice when Klarion turned a corner, ducking in an alleyway. She quickly moved to catch up, and found him standing inside the dead end, his back still away from her.

"I hope you don't think I didn't realize you were there," he said casually.

Zatanna stiffed, but somehow she managed not to yelp, instead drawing her wand and pointing it at him. "Klarion Bleak," she said.

"Yes," he replied, at last turning around, "and I hear you're the one known as Zatanna. I must say, it took a good while for you to reveal yourself."

He sounded so self-assured that it rattled Zatanna's already shaky confidence. However, she did her best not to show it.

"Tokyo-3 is my city," she said, trying to sound as imperious as she could. "You are not welcome here. Leave here and never return, or I will be forced to remove you."

"Hmm," Klarion placed a finger on his chin, as though he was actually considering it. "No."

Red light then flared around his palms. Before Zatanna could react, he felt his hands out, and bolts of crimson energy streaked out toward the magician, leaving the smell of burnt ozone in their wake.

"Dleihs em!" Zatanna barked, waving her wand through the air.

A circle of pale blue light materialized before her. The red energy crashed into it and was stopped cold.

"Nuts mih!" she barked before he could rally and unleash another attack.

A thin tongue of green energy erupted from the tip of her wand and crackled toward her enemy, but he merely held his arms over her chest, forming an X. The spell crashed into him, the energy caressing his form for a second, but then dissipated.

A layman, someone who didn't know much of anything about magic, probably would've been quite impressed by their little show.

However, Zatanna knew better. While shooting energy blasts at one another might have _looked_ impressive, it was a simple enough thing for one sorcerer to block such a direct attack from another. Only if there was a truly great difference in the amount of power the two wielded would one be able to simply overpower the other.

Most clashes between _Homo Magi, _if not settled immediately through an ambush, were determined by who could figure out some clever way to slip past their foe's defenses.

Or by who screwed up first, of course.

Of course, until one of the combatants came up with some smart maneuver, throwing attacks back and forth to keep the other as off balance as possible was pretty much standard procedure.

"I have a mission," Klarion proclaimed, his eyes suddenly aglow with an unholy white light. "I don't like it, but I can't let you stop me."

A dozen points of light formed above the boy's head. They looked almost like fireflies, except for their blood red color. The lad then formed a pair of "guns" with his hands, extending his index fingers and thumbs, then proceeded to "shoot" at her, complete with sound effects.

Every time he did so, one of the little points of light went rocketing at her with the speed of a bullet.

"Reirrab!" she cried out, and another shield of mystic energy sprang forth into being just in time to protect her from this latest assault.

"Hmph, and here I was led to believe that you'd be formidable," Klarion spat contemptuously.

Zatanna scowled, but it was just a mask to try and mask her great anxiety. Everything was happening so damned quickly, and her mounting fear that she'd bitten off more than she could hope to chew was making it harder for her to prepare her incantations.

Then Klarion leaned forward, and crimson flames erupted from his mouth, like the boy was some kind of dragon merely masquerading as a human. Confronted with the scarlet inferno rapidly approaching her, Zatanna immediately blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"Pu!"

Instantly, her feet were launched off the ground, and Zatanna went flying a good seven feet into the air as though someone had fired her out of a cannon. The flames missed her a by a wide margin.

Yet Zatanna wasn't quite done yet. She'd managed to catch her enemy by surprise with that little stunt, and she intended to make the most of it. Inexpertly shifting her weight around the air, she managed to do a clumsy sort of flip, and, by some miracle, landed on her feet directly behind the confused youth.

The force of the impact after landing from such a height was nothing short of bone-jarring, but Zatanna ignored her discomfort, intent on using Klarion's brief moment of confusion.

"Nuts mih!" she yelled again, and this time her spell crashed right into the boy's unprotected back.

Klarion released a short grunt of pain, staggering forward…but he didn't go down.

_Impossible!_ Zatanna thought.

"Nice try," Klarion taunted her, his hands taking on that evil red glow once more.

Again, the mistress of magic was forced onto the defensive, shielding herself from a renewed wave of attacks as her mind reeled.

_How the hell did he manage to shrug that attack off?_ She wondered desperately. _It __**hit**__ him! I know it did! No human should be able to ignore a hit like that, unless…_

Her eyes widened as it all clicked in her mind, and she finally realized what had been nagging her about Klarion since she'd first seen him leaving his building.

That cat of his was nowhere to be seen, and Klarion's cat was _always_ with him, except when the boy had to go to places where the feline was not permitted to accompany him.

Combined with his ability to largely ignore an attack that should have, by all rights, left him passed out on the ground, it could only mean one thing.

Zatanna pointed her wand at a nearby dumpster.

"Retspmud hsurc Noiralk!" she barked.

A large dumpster was sent hurtling across the alleyway, as though thrown by an angry giant, and it crashed directly into the boy, knocking him off his feet. Klarion was utterly crushed between it and the brick wall of the alley.

"Oh, God," Zatanna gasped, suddenly panting. "Oh, God, please say I was right."

She approached the dumpster and kneeled down, searching for Klarion's remains. To her relief, she didn't find blood or mangled flesh. Instead, she discovered numerous chunks of what looked like dried clay.

Then, before she could do anything further, Zatanna heard someone shouting from nearby. Clearly, all the noise had attracted attention. After using her magic to escape from the alley unseen, she began heading back to her home, quite certain that the real Klarion was safely ensconced within his.

_A decoy,_ she thought, disgusted with herself for falling for such a trick.

Numerous groups and cultures had developed magicks to give inanimate matter the guise of a living person—the Jews had gollums, the ancient Egyptians had used shabti, and of course, the Japanese had a few similar tricks up their own sleeves—and Zatanna had foolishly failed to check to see if she was dealing with the true Klarion.

_I wonder if he's been sending those things out a lot, expecting someone to attack them, or if he somehow spotted me staking out his apartment building,_ she thought.

Well, if there was one thing she was sure about, it was that Klarion had been looking out the eyes of his duplicate the entire time, and he doubtlessly learned a great deal about her from the experience. She, on the other hand, had learned only what she had already been assuming.

Klarion Bleak was a _very_ dangerous enemy.

* * *

Weeks after Maya's unsuccessful battle with the Witchboy, the American NERV branch in Nevada prepared for the most important test they had yet to perform.

After months of work studying the S2 organ that NERV Central had retrieved from the Fourth Angel, and even more months of work to get it installed into Unit Four, the time had finally come to activate the damn thing and see if it worked.

If the test was successful, it would mark a major milestone in the understanding of Angelic biology, as well as open up scores of opportunities for new tactics for fighting the war. If the Evangelions no longer needed power cords in order to be able to function for more than five minutes at a time, it would allow NERV to completely rewrite their playbook for the better.

So, with all these thoughts in his mind, along with visions of personal glory, floating in his head, the Commander of the Second Branch ordered one of his underlings to flip the switch.

Exactly 1.278 seconds later, the world of every soldier, scientist, and salary man in the base turned _red_.

* * *

"No matter how many times I look at it, I just can't get over it," Hyuga said.

Gazing at the satellite footage as it played in an endless loop on far wall's monitor, Maya had to agree. "I wish Dr. Akagi would let us stop analyzing the event," she said. "I mean, it's been days, and it's pretty obvious by now that we've learned about as much about it as we're going to."

Makoto gave her a surprised look in response.

"What?" Maya asked.

The bespectacled technician shook his head. "Nothing, it's just that I don't think I've ever heard you speak ill of Dr. Akagi before," he said. "Not in the slightest."

"Oh, well I don't blame sempai, not really," Maya quickly said. "She's probably got the Commanders breathing down her neck, demanding answers."

Fast as she was to make excuses for the bottle blonde, Maya definitely had to admit to herself that her mental image of Ritsuko Akagi was no longer the strong, independent woman who could practically do no wrong. Much as she hated it, she couldn't remove the image of the woman getting into Gendo Ikari's car after the Twelfth Angel was killed from her mind.

_Pity I can't memory wipe myself,_ she thought.

Maya laughed, then grimaced.

Hyuga quirked an eyebrow at her.

The brunette rubbed at her eyes. "Something occurred to me that was funny but also really not funny," her attempt at explaining sounded lame even to her ears, and she knew exactly what she was talking about. "That ever happen to you?"

"I guess," Hyuga said, but it was obvious that he was lying for the sake of being polite.

"Ugh," Maya groaned.

A small smile appeared on Makoto's face, and he apparently decided to have mercy on her. "Why don't you take a coffee break?" he suggested. "I'll cover your terminal while you're gone. It seems like you could use a pick me up."

"Yeah, you're right," she agreed. "Thanks, Hyuga."

"No problem," he said as she got up.

Departing from the stifling little research room where she and the bespectacled tech had been working, Maya made a beeline for the NERV commissary. The "coffee" they served there (the brunette refused to believe that actual coffee beans had been involved anywhere in the process of making the stuff) was as terrible as ever, but it had caffeine in it. At the moment, that was all she cared about.

She had just gotten a cup of the dubious beverage when she spotted the Ops Director at one of the tables. Despite it being late afternoon already, Misato appeared to be eating a full meal.

"Mind if I sit with you, Major?" Maya asked.

Too busy eating at a frantic pace to make a verbal reply, the purple-haired woman waved Maya to the empty seat across from her.

"Late lunch, huh?" the tech asked, sipping her coffee.

Misato took a long pull from the bottle of water she had, washing all the food in her mouth down before answering. "Yeah," she said. "Having to prepare NERV to receive another EVA Unit on such short notice is making everything crazy around here. I just didn't have time to stop for food until now."

Maya nodded and allowed the Major to eat in peace for a few moments, waiting until Misato's pace had slowed significantly before she spoke again.

"So, I heard that the Marduk Institute had already selected a pilot for Unit Three," the brunette said.

Misato's face fell at the mention of that. "Yeah, he's a friend of Shinji's. A boy named Toji Suzuhara," she said. "Rits went and recruited him just yesterday. Told him that NERV would pay for his sister's medical treatments if she piloted. She was badly injured during the Third Angel's attack when Unit One went berserk."

Maya nodded. She knew this already, but she didn't really want Misato to know just how closely she was keeping tabs on the situation. "It must be hard for Shinji," she said. "How did he react to the news?"

"I haven't told him yet," Misato admitted quietly.

Even though Maya had somewhat expected this, she was still surprised. "Why not?"

"Shinji's been through a lot, and he never really let go of the guilt over what happened to his friend's sister," the Ops Director said.

"He has to find out eventually," Maya pointed out.

"I know, I know," Misato said, "but I'd much rather he find out _after_ the activation test is finished without incident."

The tech didn't bother to point out the most obvious flaw in the other woman's plan, namely that Evangelion start-ups often _weren't_ completed without incident.

"The news will be all over the base sooner or later, and then it'll be impossible for Shinji to not hear it," Maya pointed out instead.

"I know that," Misato snapped, then took a deep breath, visibly calming herself. "Sorry, Maya, you didn't deserve that."

"It's all right," she said. "You're very stressed. I understand that."

"Anyway, I'm just…really hoping that things go right for once," Misato confessed. "If Shinji finds out somehow, then fine, it is what it is, and I'll take my lumps for keeping it from him. I just don't want him to suffer the guilt I know he'll feel over it any sooner than necessary."

"I see," Maya replied noncommittally. "Well, I should probably head back. I left poor Hyuga covering my terminal."

"Right," Misato agreed.

Despite the technician's words, however, she did not head back to the room where she and her bespectacled colleague were fruitlessly attempted to glean more information about the disaster in Nevada from a few seconds of satellite footage. Instead, she made a beeline straight for the locker room reserved for male Evangelion pilots.

_I know they had a synch test today,_ she thought, checking her wristwatch. _Now, if I remember the schedule right…_

The brunette leaned her head toward the door, and sure enough, she could just hear the shower going inside. Shinji was in the process of getting the LCL off of his skin and hair, it seemed.

Maya settled down to wait, and ten minutes later, the Third Child emerged from the locker room, clad in his school uniform.

"Maya?" he asked, surprised to see her. "What are you doing here?"

"There's something I need to tell you," she replied, trying to keep her voice from sounding too grave. "Here, let me buy you a soda, and we'll talk."

"Okay," he agreed.

They walked to a bank of vending machines together, where Maya brought him the promised beverage. He cracked the can open, and they sat down on a nearby bench.

"Before I start," Maya said, "you should know that, while I haven't been explicitly ordered to keep this information from you, it's pretty obvious that I'm not supposed to tell you."

"If you could get in trouble for it, then maybe it's better you don't tell me," Shinji said.

Maya shook her head. "No, it's something I really believe you have the right to know. We place adult burdens on you. The least you deserve in return is some adult respect, which means not leaving you in the dark because someone decided it's for your own good," she insisted. "If it gets out that I told you, I'll take responsibility for it with no regrets."

"Well, I won't tell anyone you told me," Shinji promised. "I don't want you to get into trouble over me."

The brunette nodded. He had no idea what she was about to tell him, but he was already vowing to shield her from taking her lumps for spilling the beans.

"Your friend Toji was selected to be the pilot of Unit Three," she said.

Shinji's face paled. "What?" he breathed.

"Apparently, he was the most suitable of the third level candidates," she said. "He…he agreed to do it because NERV agreed to pay for the medical procedures his sister needs if he did."

The Third Child's shoulders slumped. "No…" he whispered.

Maya put a hand on his shoulder. "Shinji, I…I can only imagine what you're feeling right now, but it'll be all right," she tried to reassure him. "Once your friend starts piloting, you'll be there, and you'll be able to watch his back. You're not helpless to affect this situation, Shinji."

"I…yeah, I guess you're right," he agreed, giving her a weak smile.

They sat there in silence for a minute or two. Maya knew she really should be getting back to work soon; Hyuga had to be getting impatient with her by this point. However, she had a feeling that her conversation with Shinji wasn't quite over yet.

"Maya?" he eventually spoke up again, proving her right.

"Yes, Shinji?" she asked.

"The activation test is in a few days, right?" he asked.

She nodded. "That's right."

"Are you going to be there?" he asked.

"Me?" She said, surprised. "Probably not. Most of the staff performing the test will either be from the Matsushiro base or the remaining American branch of NERV. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I'd feel a lot better about it if you were there," Shinji confessed.

Maya blinked. She liked to think she was good at her job, but she had no illusions that NERV would fall apart without her. Her presence at Matsushiro would hardly make the activation test any less likely to end in disaster.

Yet clearly, Shinji felt otherwise, and Maya was flattered to discover that he held such a high opinion of her abilities.

"If it will make you feel better, I'll ask Dr. Akagi if I can accompany her to the test," she said. "I can't promise you more than that, but…I think she'll agree."

"Thank you, Maya," Shinji said with a small smile. "It means a lot to me."

* * *

Klarion Bleak had truly, truly grown to hate the room where he met with SEELE.

Not so much because it was a dark void where he interacted only with holographic monoliths. Having grown up in an underground village, he was quite used to dim light, and while not being able to actually see the people he was talking to was irksome, it wasn't truly loathsome.

No, Klarion Bleak hated the room where he met with SEELE because he had to meet with SEELE there.

"Bleak."

The monolith representing SEELE 01 came into being with a soft sound like a whoosh of air.

"Hello, Keel," Klarion greeted him.

There was a pause, and if the Witchboy suspected that Keel was scowling behind his avatar. "I've told you before, do not use names here," he said.

Klarion rolled his eyes. "Very well," he said. "I have something to report, oh great and illustrious SEELE Zero-One," he said, the very portrait of adolescent impertinence.

"What is it? What have you learned?" Keel demanded, not even bothering to mask the annoyance in his voice.

"That Zatanna woman who reportedly appeared during the Twelfth Angel's attack confronted one of my puppets," he said.

"And what did you learn about her?" Keel asked, the irritation instantly gone from his voice, replaced by curiosity.

Klarion absently wondered if Keel was always so open with his emotions. If so, it was a wonder that he'd managed to become the leader of a secret cabal that manipulated the whole world from the shadows.

Though, then again, it wasn't as though Keel really needed to maintain a strong poker face in front of the Witchboy; where Klarion was concerned, the wizened cyborg held all the cards.

"She's powerful," Klarion said, "and quite clever, too, from what I saw. She made a point of only trying to incapacitate 'me' at first, but she figured out what she was really fighting quickly and then immediately smashed my puppet. Also, her legs go _all_ the way up." He added with a smirk.

Keel ignored the bit at the end. "Do you think you could defeat her?"

"I would need to make some preparations in order to feel fully confident of victory," Klarion answered, "but yes, I'm sure I can take her."

"Then get started," Keel ordered.

"Yes, SEELE Zero-One," the Witchboy answered with a mocking grin. "What about Ikari, though? The younger one?"

"Zatanna is your first priority right now," Keel answered. "Once she's dealt with, then you can investigate young Mr. Ikari and see why he was immune to your little jokes."

"Right," Klarion nodded.

"Succeed in these tasks, and I might even consider letting you go, Bleak," Keel said.

The leader of SEELE's monolith winked out of existence then, leaving Klarion all alone in the dark room. Nevertheless, the boy stuck his tongue out at Keel.

* * *

The big day had come at last, and with the activation test only minutes away, Maya Ibuki found herself feeling extremely uneasy.

She didn't know why this was so; there had been absolutely no irregularities in the process of preparing the Evangelion for the test. Indeed, things had run almost _too_ smoothly.

Yet her palms were still sweating, and she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong.

_It's just that this whole, awful situation is giving you jitters,_ she told herself. _There's no other reason to be nervous. The Americans inspected Unit Three extensively before they loaded it up for transport, and the production models have zero history of going berserk, unlike the prototype and test type. Everything's going to be just fine._

"Are you all right, Maya?" Ritsuko asked.

"Huh? What?" the brunette asked, startled. She hadn't realized that the Project-E chairperson was behind her.

"If you were nervous about this test, you should have just stayed back in Tokyo-3," Ritsuko chided her gently. "You seemed so eager when you asked me if you could accompany me here."

"Sorry, sempai," Maya said. "I guess I'm just…I don't know. I'm wondering if we can really do this. Bribe that Suzuhara boy into piloting with medical treatment for his sister, I mean."

Ritsuko sighed heavily. "It's not like we haven't done worse to get a Child into the entry plug," she pointed out.

Maya grimaced as she thought back to the night the Commander had coerced Shinji into fighting for them, and her reaction to the whole spectacle. She hadn't been totally indifferent to the terrible position his father had placed him in, of course, but it had been more of an afterthought to her. She'd been far more concerned about the Angel at the time, as well as behaving in a professional manner during her first time working in the command center during combat.

"But the situation isn't as pressing now as it was back then," Maya argued.

"It _feels_ less pressing, but that doesn't mean that it _is_," Ritsuko countered. "The fact is, until the last Angel is dead, humanity is in danger of being wiped off the face of the Earth. We need to do anything we can to prevent that from happening?"

"Anything?" Maya asked. "Where do we draw the line?"

_Do we have to lose our humanity to save humanity?_ She silently added.

"We can only draw lines where the Angels allow us to," was Ritsuko's less than satisfying answer.

"Yes, ma'am," Maya said quietly.

Ritsuko didn't opt to comment further, instead going to check up on something, and the brunette had to admit she was relieved. Maya wasn't sure if this side of her sempai had only surfaced recently, or if it had always been there and she was only seeing it now that she had been disillusioned when it came to NERV in general. Either way, she didn't like it.

"We're about ready to begin," the Project-E chairperson announced a few minutes later. "Shall we get this show on the road?"

"Hold on for a second," Misato said, "let me speak to the pilot for a second, first."

Ritsuko shrugged. "All right, if you want to."

Misato switched the intercom on. "Toji?"

Immediately, a window opened on one of the many monitors in the control room, showing the newly minted Fourth Child. He looked extremely tense, but he forced a smile the moment he saw the Ops Director's face.

"Hey, Misato," he greeted her. "Um, I mean, Major Katsuragi."

"You can keep calling me 'Misato'," she informed him. "I don't run a very formal operation."

"Oh, well, all right, then, Misato," he said.

"So, we're about to begin the test," she said. "Are you ready, Pilot?"

The still untested EVA pilot actually shuddered at this news, but he quickly suppressed his reaction, giving the Ops Director a thumbs up with a shaking hand. Maya couldn't help but smirk at his transparent display of machismo; he was probably trying to impress the busty Operations Director, she realized.

_God, he seems so…so immature compared to Shinji,_ she mused silently.

"All right," the Major said, "the pilot's ready. Let's get started, guys!"

Ritsuko nodded. "Commence start up sequence. Initiate the first level nerve connections!" she ordered.

Maya's hands flowed over her keyboard almost without her thinking about it; the startup sequence was almost automatic for her by this point. "Connections are nominal," she reported. "Proceeding to second level connections."

"Voltage levels are rising within acceptable parameters," Sakura, one of the junior techs, reported. "We're picking up brainwave activity within the Unit. All monitors are green."

"Establishing third level nerve connections," Maya said, tension rising in her voice as they approached the moment of truth. "EVA Unit Three full activation in three…two…one!"

The moment she concluded her brief countdown, the window showing Toji's image was replaced by static. Every screen that was displaying information on the pilot's vital signs winked out.

There was a very brief, very pregnant paused.

Then Misato barked, "What's going on? What happened?"

"The nerve connections have been reversed!" Maya exclaimed. "The pulses are flowing backwards! Mental contamination is imminent!"

Then, as if that news wasn't bad enough, the sound of metal groaning in protest as it was bent reached everyone's ears, even though the control room and the Matsushiro base's lone Evangelion cage weren't in adjoining chambers.

Sakura quickly pulled up a visual feed from cameras inside the cage, putting it onto the room's main view screen. They clearly showed Unit Three struggling to break free of its heavy restraints…and succeeding.

"Berserker!" Ritsuko exclaimed. "No!"

An alarm from Maya's terminal said that the truth of the matter was even worse than that. "Pattern blue!" she yelled. "It's an Angel!"

"_No!_ _Toji!_" Misato yelled, but it was already far too late to do anything.

A flash of light blossomed into existence within the cage. Before anyone in the control room even had the time to register what that meant, the structure was crumbling around them, and they knew no more.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so Maya's first direct confrontation with Klarion ends in less than a rousing success. Of course, that's not her main concern at the moment.

Maya's little revelation to Shinji honestly felt pretty forced to me, but I wanted to clarify that about her. And I really didn't see any opportunity in future chapters to do it.

Anyway, as always, thanks to all my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	10. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it, and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Nine:** The Fall of Giants

As she slowly returned to the waking world, the first thing that occurred to Maya Ibuki was that her alarm clock should've gone off by that point.

She had no idea what time it was, of course; she hadn't even opened her eyes yet. However, she could feel warm sunlight on her face, and she felt certain that dawn had passed some time ago.

_Maybe the batteries in the damn thing died again,_ she mused sleepily.

Yet despite her suspicion that she was in danger of being late for work, Maya couldn't quite force herself to open her eyes and get up. Indeed, she felt so weary, her whole body so completely leaden, that the idea was almost inconceivable.

She tried to snuggle against her pillow in an effort to get more comfortable, only to find that it was surprisingly hard. In fact, it felt like she was resting her head on a chunk of concrete.

_Wait a minute,_ she thought, suddenly feeling a bit more awake.

Reluctantly, she lifted her head and slowly opened her eyes. Sure enough, her "pillow" really _was_ a chunk of concrete.

"Oh, shit," she hissed, all traces of weariness vanishing in an instant as the memory of what had happened rushed back to her.

Unit Three had broken its bonds the moment it had been activated. There had been an explosion of some kind, but not before they had detected a blue pattern from the new Evangelion.

Cursing more than she had in the last year, Maya scrambled to her feet, ignoring her body's protests. The control room she, Dr. Akagi, and Major Katsuragi was all but gone; only one of the walls remained, the ceiling was completely absent, and all the computers had been reduced to so much junk. If they'd been any closer to Unit Three, they would've all died for sure.

_Hell, it's a wonder that we're still alive,_ she thought, staggering about the room and checking on her coworkers. She able to detect a steady pulse in all of them, but none of them so much as stirred when she pressed her fingers to the arteries in their necks. Since everybody who'd been in the control room was present, that meant Maya was the first one to wake up.

Her father always had said that most _Homo Magi_ enjoyed a stronger constitution than the average human, but she had never really _believed_ him before.

_Okay, mind on track now,_ she commanded herself sternly, doing her best to master her chaotic and panicked thoughts. _What do I do first?_

That, at least, was fairly simple.

"Laeh em," she commanded.

Instantly, the multitude of scrapes, cuts, and bruises she had sustained vanished. Her left leg, which had been throbbing so badly that she had feared it was about to explode, was suddenly free of pain. Maya breathed a sigh of relief.

_Okay, what next?_ She asked herself.

The techie checked her wristwatch. Assuming that it wasn't broken (which was a very real possibility, considering what it had just been through), only about 20 minutes had passed since Unit Three had gone berserk.

She ran some quick and dirty mental calculations and figured that it would take NERV at least 30 minutes to mobilize the other Evangelions and get them to Unit Three's location. It was an optimistic number, even if she assumed that everything at headquarters ran like clockwork, and there was no guarantee that they would, with so much of NERV Central's staff currently at Matsushiro.

_So I have at least a ten minute window,_ she thought, quickly reaching a decision.

"Emutsoc," she said, and the magician's garments immediately replaced her NERV uniform. Then she turned to her unconscious co-workers. "Peels litnu I nruter."

That done, Zatanna pointed her magic wand at herself. "Ekat em ot eht Legna."

With that, she vanished.

* * *

"What is that?" Shinji Ikari breathed, feeling his stomach churn unpleasantly as he guided Unit One forwards.

All in all, it was shaping up to be a very bad day, to put it mildly. The catastrophe that everyone had quietly feared had come to pass.

Now _three_ of the few people Shinji truly felt he was close with in this world—Misato, Maya, and Toji—were in danger (or worse, but the Third Child _really_ didn't want to contemplate that possibility).

And, perhaps worst of all, if anything bad happened to Maya, then it would be all his fault.

_I shouldn't have asked her to go to Matsushiro,_ he thought miserably.

Some part of him had believed, completely and truly, that Maya would be able to prevent any disaster from happening. Only now did he see how incredibly foolish that had been. The presence of one more technician, no matter how competent, hardly ensured success, especially when something as volatile as an Evangelion was concerned.

_I'm such a stupid idiot,_ he berated himself. _I never should have—_

"Pilot Ikari!"

Shinji started, abruptly snapping back to reality. "Huh? What?"

"I told you to stop and hold your position for now," Fuyutski ordered him tersely. "Pull yourself together, Pilot!"

"R-Right," Shinji said. "Sorry."

For a brief moment, he caught himself wondering just why Fuyutski was giving the orders, rather than Misato. Then he realized that Misato had, of course, been in Matsushiro. He had become so used to her presence in the command center while he was in EVA that even when he was worrying about what had become of her, he was still unconsciously expecting her to be the voice in his ear during combat.

That it was Fuyutski commanding the battle in Misato's absence, rather than his father, didn't surprise Shinji much, though. Sightings of Gendo Ikari had been very scarce for some time now, and no one seemed to know why.

"There it is," Asuka said softly.

Shinji's eyes widened. Unit Three strode toward them at an almost casual pace, its black armor practically glowing red beneath the bloody glare of the late day sun.

"But…but that's an EVA," Shinji spoke, his voice barely rising above the level of a whisper.

"I'm aware of that, Pilot!" Fuyutski snapped, and Shinji abruptly realized that the old Vice Commander was as anxious about the situation as he was.

In a way, it was a relief to discover that he wasn't the only one who was nearly being consumed by worry and dread. On the other hand, there was something uniquely awful in the knowledge that the man currently in charge wasn't any more certain about how to resolve the situation without disaster than Shinji himself was.

"What are your orders, sir?" Rei asked, as placid and unflappable as ever. If she had made the same the realization that Shinji just had, she didn't show it.

"The Fourth Child's still inside that thing," Fuyutski said grimly, which was, of course, no answer at all. "Engage Unit Three, carefully. Obviously, we want to save Pilot Suzuhara, but defeating the Angel has to be our top priority."

_Thanks, that's really specific,_ Shinji couldn't help but think. _He might as well have just told us to "save the day" or something._

Still, he supposed he should be grateful that the Vice Commander wasn't just completely writing off Toji.

"Come on," Asuka said, the normally boisterous pilot speaking in an unusually subdued voice. "We're not going to do any good just standing here."

Shinji nodded, reluctantly commanding Unit One to move.

Yet before he could take a single step, he spotted something out of the corner of his eyes. It was a tiny flash of light, and it seemed to come from the very peak of Mount Nobe.

The Third Child instantly zoomed in on the mountaintop, and his eyes widened at what he saw.

"Look! It's Zatanna," he said. "She's here!"

Asuka and Rei also halted, turning to observe for themselves.

"What's she doing here?" the redhead asked, for once appearing more confused than angry by the arrival of an interloper.

"I don't…" Shinji trailed off as she raised her wand.

The ground beneath Unit One's feet began to tremble, and as the Third Child watched in disbelief, Mount Nobe began to move. At first, it looked like it was growing taller, but then its shape began to change, countless tons of rock shifting about wildly.

_It's not growing,_ Shinji realized with a jolt. _It's __**standing.**_

The mountain had taken on a roughly human shape, and the great stone giant had risen to its feet, dirt and smaller pieces of rock streaming off of its form. It was shorter than an Evangelion by about a head but far more massive in size. Zooming in again, Shinji could see Zatanna perched atop the titan's shoulder.

"This is impossible," the Third Child said, eyes wide in disbelief.

"Yet it is happening," Rei said. "Vice Commander, your orders?"

Fuyutski hesitated for a moment before answering. "Hold position for now."

"You don't honestly think Zatanna and that rock thing can beat the Angel, do you?" Asuka scoffed.

"No, but perhaps she can free the Fourth Child," Fuyutski said. "At the very least, we'll learn about this Angel's capabilities from watching her engage it."

"Shouldn't we help her?" Shinji asked, surprised at the Vice Commander's coldly calculating assessment. "She could be killed!"

"Hold your positions," Fuyutski commanded.

Shinji reluctantly stood down. "Yes, sir," he grumbled, not liking this at all.

* * *

Zatanna knew that she didn't have any chance of beating the Angel.

Against just about anything else, the giant golem she had managed to create would have been an unstoppable destroyer, death given physical form.

Against an Angel, well, she just hoped it would hold together long enough to do what she needed it to, namely liberate the Fourth Child from inside Unit Three. She had attempted to simply teleport him out with magic, but her powers had proved as ineffective against the Thirteenth Angel as it had against the Twelfth.

"Forward," she commanded the stone giant, holding onto the side of its rocky head as it began to move.

Just as it started walking, the Thirteenth Angel came to a halt. Still a good distance away from the stone giant, it turned it head, silently regarding its new foe with the air of a beast sizing up an enemy.

Then the Angel lashed out, and Unit Three's arms stretched like rubber, reaching an impossible distance. Its armored fists crashed into the torso of Zatanna's golem like twin wrecking balls, sending it staggering and knocking great chunks of stone out of its body, creating an avalanche down the giant's front. The magician, caught completely by surprise, was immediately thrown from her perch.

"Ahh!" Zatanna shrieked as she plummeted. "Noitativel!"

Instantly, her descent came to a halt, and the magician let out a low groan as inertia sent a jolt through her body, causing her stomach to roil unpleasantly. Truly, she hated flying.

Grabbing hold of her hat just before it could fall off of her head, the magician managed to reorient herself in the air so she was at least floating right-side-up, and turned to her golem again.

"Run!" she barked at it.

It did so, thundering across the landscape as it broke into a sprint, each step causing the ground to shake beneath its immense weight. Unfortunately, the Angel wasn't content to simply wait while the magician's golem advanced on it. It swung out with its impossibly elastic arms again and again, each blow knocking a great chunk out of the stone giant, causing untold tons of rock to go raining down.

Zatanna bit her lower lip as she watched her hastily conjured titan take a pounding. If her golem took much more of this abuse, it would simply fall apart.

"Faster!" she yelled at her golem.

It obeyed, its footfalls leaving massive prints in the landscape, and just as she thought that it was about to collapse beneath the force of the Angel's assault, it reached its foe, slamming into Unit Three with the weight of a mountain.

Not even an Angel could possibly resist a head-on collision with such a huge amount of rock; Unit Three was instantly tackled to the ground, landing hard on its back as Zatanna's golem landed atop it.

Unfortunately, this was actually the _worst_ position to have the Angel in, so far as liberating the pilot. Zatanna couldn't help but scowl at her own lack of foresight; there was a _reason_ why she wasn't the Operations Director.

"Turn it over! Turn it over!" she shouted.

Her half destroyed golem sluggishly moved to comply, grabbing Unit Three's narrow shoulders with its massive hands. However, the Angel was already fighting furiously to get up. Its arms stretched and twisted in ways that would be impossible for any normal being, its massive hands reaching out and grasping the golem's blocky head.

Unit Three audibly grunted, its efforts slowly pushing the golem off of itself.

"Come on! Fight it!" Zatanna yelled frantically, mind whirling as she tried to think up a remotely workable Plan B.

She had no illusions about recreating her golem if Unit Three managed to destroy it completely. Zatanna felt woozy and weak from the effort of forming it the first time, and she knew she was running off of adrenaline at this point.

Then the Angel's AT Field pulsed with a flare of orange light, knocking the golem backwards and damaging it even further. It wasn't quite off of the Angel's back yet, but it looked like it would crumble to pieces at any moment. Zatanna winced, simply waiting for the inevitable.

Only it didn't happen at all as she expected it to.

In its last moment, the golem wrapped its arms and legs around the Angel, rolling over so that Unit Three's back was at last exposed. Then, even as the stone giant's body disintegrated, it reached out with one of its great hands, grabbing the armor plate that covered Unit Three's entry plug and ripping it off.

Finally, the stone giant completely fell apart, collapsing into an ordinary, if enormous, pile of rocks.

Zatanna knew that she'd have to act fast; mere rubble would never keep an Angel down for long, no matter how much of it was present. "Yrtne gulp emoc tuo!" she commanded.

Immediately, the large metal tube of the entry plug began to float out of its place inside Unit Three, snapping the thin strands of what she could only assume was Angelic material as it did so. In seconds, the plug was free of the Evangelion-turned-Angel.

It wasn't a moment too soon. The Thirteenth Angel's AT Field pulsed, sending rocks flying in all directions. Several of them slammed against the levitating entry plug, leaving a series of dents and dings in the metal.

Zatanna wasn't about to wait for the rocks to reach her. "Attuo ereh!" she exclaimed, causing herself and the entry plug to vanish with a flash of light.

* * *

Consciousness did not return to quickly to Toji Suzuhara, instead, he returned to the waking world by degrees. Where before all had been silent blackness, he slowly became aware of light beyond his closed eyelids and sounds he couldn't identify all around him. Not long after that, his brain tentatively formed its first coherent thought since the activation test's abrupt and disastrous conclusion.

_What happened? Am I dead?_ He wondered.

Slowly, he opened his eyes. The light immediately caused him to squint, but he forced himself to tolerate it until his eyes started to adjust. He really wanted to know whether he was dead or not; it seemed like a very important matter for some reason.

Eventually, he began to make out shapes and colors. He blinked several times, and each time he did, his vision seemed to get a little bit clearer.

Finally, he was able to actually see the pair of extremely shapely legs that towered over him. Clad in fishnet stockings, the legs seemed to go on forever, and they were attached to a masked woman, who was wearing a top hat and a tuxedo.

_Okay, not dead,_ he decided. _Just dreaming._

The masked woman's attire was _far_ too risqué for her to be an angel from Heaven. Yet it was pretty much par the course for Toji's dreams. It was a bit odd that he didn't know who she was, though.

_Man, what happened to Misato in the cheerleader outfit?_ He wondered idly. _She still hasn't finished congratulating me on winning the championship game…_

The jock could feel himself drifting off again. Since he was now quite sure that he was really safe in his bed, he allowed his eyes to flutter closed. There would be plenty of time to get to know the mystery woman with the great legs the next time he fell asleep…

"C'mon, kid, wake up," he heard her pleading with him. "Ekaw pu!"

Toji's eyes popped open, and he abruptly sat bolt upright. The jock suddenly felt like he'd spent the last hour or so chugging energy drinks.

"What the…_what_?" he babbled, too shocked by his surroundings to form a coherent sentence.

He was sitting in his entry plug, which itself was sitting in a forest somewhere, rather than inside of Unit Three, where it was supposed to be. Not only that, but the plug was filled almost to the top with some kind of grayish goo, Toji noted with disgust.

Along with the mystery woman with the fishnets and the top hat, this had to be the strangest scene that Toji had woken up to, ever.

"Are you all right?" the woman asked him.

"Yeah, I think so," he said, moving his arms and legs experimentally. "Um, who're you?"

She smirked very slightly. "You can call me Zatanna," she replied, which told him absolutely nothing, of course.

"Okay, Zatanna," he said, then began to climb out of his plug. The gray goop dripped off his suit as his stood. "Ugh, what is this crap?"

"It was probably part of the Angel," Zatanna answered. "Now it's just something for NERV to look at under a microscope."

"An Angel!" Toji gasped, suddenly remembering how everything had just gone crazy the second they'd started up Unit Three. "Where is it? I have to warn somebody!"

Zatanna put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. "Believe me, NERV already knows they've got an Angel to deal with. You don't need to do anything," she said. "Naelc mih pu."

Immediately, the gray ooze vanished from Toji's plug suit, leaving it as pristinely clean as it had been that morning. He did a double take, shocked.

"How did you _do_ that?" he squawked.

"Magic," she replied, as though people did it everyday.

"Magic?" he echoed incredulously. "But—"

The ground trembled beneath them, and Toji immediately stopped talking. The jock looked around, and it didn't take him long to see the dark form of Unit Three. His EVA was easily visible, even over the treetops. Fortunately, it didn't appear to be heading in their direction.

"Unit Three's moving? Without me?" he asked, shocked.

"I told you, there's an Angel," Zatanna said. "It took control of your EVA."

"We have to let NERV know I'm not inside it!" Toji exclaimed, frantic all over again. "If Shinji and the others don't attack it…"

"Believe me, NERV knows that you're not in it," Zatanna reassured him.

"How can you be so sure?" Toji asked.

Before she could answer, the sound of gunfire tore through the air. Even though they were out in the open, it was deafening, and the jock could easily feel his ears ringing. There was no doubt in his mind that he was hearing Evangelion-scale weapons.

His belief was confirmed a moment later as dozens of bloody holes appeared in Unit Three's body, courtesy of the other three Evangelions. They were further away; Toji could barely see them over the treetops, but he was pretty sure they were all using pallet rifles.

"They turned it into Swiss cheese!" he exclaimed, shocked and a little horrified. He couldn't help but imagine what would've happened if he'd been in Unit Three.

_Shinji wouldn't shoot at my EVA if he thought I was still inside it,_ he told himself. _The Devil…yeah, she might, but Shinji wouldn't!_

In the distance, Unit Three staggered forward. One step, then two. Then it began to fall forward.

Toji braced himself, but nothing could've prepared him for the noise and impact that came when it hit the ground. It sounded like thunder, but far, far closer than he'd ever heard it, and the ground bucked violently. The jock actually saw his entry plug jump off the forest floor for a moment before coming back to earth.

Then…silence.

"Now what?" Toji asked after a few moments.

"Now I get out of here," she told him, "and you wait for NERV to come along."

"What?" he asked. "Hey, wait, you—"

"Kcab ot eht esab!" Zatanna said, and to the jock's immense surprise, she vanished without a trace.

* * *

Meanwhile, far away from the chaos unfolding at the foot of Mount Nobe, Klarion the Witchboy readied for battle.

"It all looks very plain now, doesn't it, Teekl?" he asked, placing the Submissionary's Rod onto the table in his apartment's living room.

It had seemed so grand and ornate not very long ago, but that had been before he had escaped Limbo Town. When his world had been darkness and drab stone, it wasn't hard for the wooden staff to look impressive. Now that he'd seen the world above, with all its wonders and grandeur, well, Klarion's standards were higher now.

Perched atop his shoulder, Teekl meowed.

"Ah, how right you are, Teekl," Klarion said, stroking the feline's head and getting a loud purr in response. "Some things are so much more than they appear."

He grabbed a large roll of parchment and unfurled it on the table, revealing a very old map.

"Amazing that I've never been able to find the place this map depicts, even when I use the Google machine," he mused quietly.

Teekl meowed again.

"Impatient thing, aren't you?" Klarion asked affectionately, giving the feline a scratch behind his ears. He sighed. "Difficult to imagine that these old things are the keys to Limbo Town's most powerful magic, isn't it?"

Of course, the Witchboy mused, part of the reason it seemed so unbelievable was that he didn't fully understand the way this bit of magic functioned. Oh, he knew enough to cast the spell, but he had little idea of _how_ it worked.

He didn't like using magic like that.

"Meow."

"I know Teekl," Klarion said softly, "but I have no choice. I have to do this thing for Keel, and Zatanna is powerful. Very powerful. And she also has a very fine set of legs." He added in a sotto voice, more to himself than to the cat.

Teekl swatted the side of his face with her paw. He raised a hand to his cheek, and there was no blood on his fingers when he drew them back. However, he was quite sure he'd felt her claws rake against his skin.

"Hmph," he grumbled. "Anyway, as I was saying, I can't be certain of victory against Zatanna…unless I use the power of a Horigal."

* * *

"They kicked you out of NERV?" Shinji asked, barely daring to believe it.

"I wouldn't say I was 'kicked out' exactly," Toji replied defensively. "I was relieved of duty and discharged, and that was only because they were afraid of some sort of contamination or something. Thought that something bad might happen if they put me into an entry plug again, I guess."

Shinji, Toji, and Kensuke were sitting in the school yard, eating lunch together. It looked like it was any other day, as if the jock hadn't so recently climbed into an Evangelion only to discover that an Angel already had its hooks into the machine. As if yesterday hadn't held the potential for a horrific disaster, which had only been defused by a mysterious woman who went around wearing a top hat and fishnet stockings.

The Third Child wasn't fooled though, not for a minute. Just thinking about what could've happened the previous day left him feeling shaky and vaguely nauseous inside.

"Man, they kicked you out of NERV?" Kensuke asked Toji. "That sucks!"

"I told you, I wasn't kicked out!" Toji snapped, annoyed. "It was like an honorable discharge!"

Yet somehow, his friends seemed cheerfully oblivious to the possibilities that had so narrowly been avoided. Shinji supposed he should be glad that they didn't feel like a ball of nerves as a result of the whole thing, like he did. Yet part of him couldn't help but find it exasperating.

"Hey, Shinji, you think that they're looking for another pilot, now that they kicked Toji out?" the otaku asked.

"I was not just kicked out of NERV!" Toji growled.

"I don't think so, Ken," Shinji said, ignoring the increasingly annoyed jock. "Unit Three was totally destroyed, so I don't see why NERV would need another pilot any time soon."

He was really quite glad that he'd emptied his pallet rifle's entire clip into the possessed EVA, once Zatanna had gotten Toji out of it. Shinji had a feeling that NERV would've kept the jock on the roster, if Unit Three had survived, and damn any supposed threat of Angelic contamination.

"Man, that stinks," the otaku said glumly. "Because Toji totally messed up and got booted out of NERV, now I lost my chance at being a pilot!"

"Did you actually listen to this conversation at all? Any of it?" the jock demanded, looking about ready to blow a gasket at this point.

"So, Toji, you were telling us about Zatanna?" Shinji prompted him.

"Oh yeah," the jock said, irritation immediately forgotten. "Anyway, the plug opens up, and there she is. This woman is wearing a tux from the waist up, complete with top hat. But she's not wearing any pants!"

He said this loudly enough that he drew a few disgusted looks from a nearby group of girls. Shinji blushed slightly, suddenly wondering if it wouldn't have been better to just let the jock go ballistic on Kensuke.

"Instead, it looks like she's wearing a bathing suit or something under the tux, and she's wearing these fishnet stockings," Toji went on. "Man, she had the most incredible legs I've ever seen."

"Then what happened?" Kensuke asked.

Toji shrugged. "We talked for a minute, then the other Evangelions destroyed Unit Three, and she said some kind of gibberish and just disappeared. Right in front of my eyes."

Kensuke shook his head. "Man, if Shinji hadn't said that NERV had run into this Zatanna woman before, I wouldn't believe a word of this story," he said.

"I swear, it's all true, man," Toji said.

"So what _does_ NERV know about this woman, anyway?" Kensuke asked. "I never heard of her until now."

"Not much, so far as I know. She appeared at the field base while we were fighting the Twelfth Angel," he suppressed a shudder at the memory of being trapped inside that thing. "I didn't see her myself, but Misato said she fought a bunch of monsters the Angel created and then put everyone at the base to sleep. Apparently, she was the one who killed the Angel, because NERV didn't do it."

"That's so cool," Kensuke said. "I wonder why she doesn't show up more."

"Does NERV have any idea who she is, Shinji?" Toji asked.

The Third Child shrugged. "Not really."

"Not really? As in, they sort of have some idea?" Kensuke pressed.

"They don't have any idea, they have a rumor," Shinji said. "People around the base have been gossiping that this technician named Maya Ibuki is Zatanna ever since the Thirteenth Angel."

People had actually been gossiping about that since the _Twelfth_ Angel, but Shinji didn't exactly have his finger on the pulse of NERV. He hadn't learned about the rumors until Zatanna's second appearance had caused the number of people who believed the them to spike.

"Well, who's to say that this Ibuki lady isn't Zatanna?" Toji asked.

Shinji shook his head. "Maya's not Zatanna," he said dismissively. "I know her. She's been tutoring me for weeks now, actually, and I can't imagine her being Zatanna."

"Then why are there rumors about it?" Kensuke challenged him.

Shinji frowned for a moment, realizing he hadn't really thought about that. However, the question was easy enough to answer.

"She used to be a stage magician," he said. "She finds it embarrassing, though, so she kept it to herself. If people found out about it right around the time Zatanna made her first appearance…"

"Ah," Toji nodded in understanding.

"Plus, from what I've heard, she's about the right height and body type to be Zatanna," Shinji said, silently adding that she definitely had the great legs. "But the whole idea is just crazy, and I don't think anybody's taking the idea seriously."

* * *

"Oh, what a day," Maya groaned to herself, stretching widely as she rode the elevator in her apartment building.

Understandably spooked by what had happened to Unit Three, NERV was going to great lengths to finish the analysis of the Thirteenth Angel as soon as possible.

Of course, that translated into extra hours for Technical Division One. Maya had just finished a twelve hour day, and she'd _still_ be at the base if she hadn't traded shifts with one of the other techs.

_I could've endured the marathon at work. Goodness knows I've done it before,_ she thought as she stepped out of the elevator and headed for the door to her apartment. _But all those __**stupid**__ rumors…_

She didn't know if someone had actually managed to observe her period of absence from the remains of the control room in Matsushiro—it was possible, since she had only put the people who'd been in the room with her into an enchanted sleep. However, she suspected that a second appearance by Zatanna had simply breathed new life into the old rumors that had followed her defeat of the Twelfth Angel, without anyone actually having any sort of fresh evidence on the matter.

Ultimately, she supposed it didn't matter. NERV wasn't hunting her down like a dog, so she supposed that Ikari and Fuyutski at least weren't certain that she was Zatanna. At worse, they had their suspicions.

No, what was really getting to her was the speculative looks everyone gave her when they thought she wasn't watching. She could practically see the wheels in their head turning as they wondered if she could really be the mysterious Zatanna.

Then they'd catch her looking back at them, and they'd avert their gaze and act like everything was normal. Which, of course, it wasn't.

In the past, Maya had always felt like she was another of the "troops" at NERV, that she'd always been accepted by her coworkers down in the proverbial trenches as much as anyone else.

Now, not so much. Now, people were suspicious about her, wary of her. Now, she wasn't one of them; she was the Other.

_I wonder if this is how Shinji feels,_ she mused idly as she unlocked her door. _There probably aren't many places where he's just "one of the guys" these days. He certainly isn't at NERV._

She was so lost in thought that she almost failed to notice him. There was a man in her apartment, and he appeared to be in the middle of ransacking her special closet. The one where she kept all of her magical items.

Maya let out a wordless cry of surprise the moment she saw him, and the man jumped, turning to face her. He bit out a curse, then immediately plunged a hand into his pocket, doubtlessly reaching for a weapon.

The brunette didn't give him the chance to draw it.

"Peels!" she barked.

Instantly, the man's eyes rolled back into his head. His body went limp, and he crumpled to the floor, soundly unconscious.

Unhurt but very badly shaken, Maya staggered over to one of the chairs in her kitchen and all but collapsed into it. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and it took several moments before it slowed down to something resembling its normal speed.

She had faced far worse—_far_ worse—than the cheap thug who now lay passed out on her floor, but this was the first time that someone had ever invaded her home in such a manner. To discover an enemy within her own domicile, in the place she always thought of as representing safety and comfort, frightened her to her core.

_You_ _might not have just waltzed into the Commander's place if you'd had this experience before then, would you?_ A nasty little voice in her mind whispered.

Maya ignored it, telling herself for the ten-thousandth time that what was done was done, and that reversing the mind wipe she'd performed on the Commander was simply _not_ an option.

"Now, what do I do about you?" the brunette asked, turning her attention to the still unconscious man.

Maya went riffling through the pockets of his dark suit, and she was dismayed but completely unsurprised to find a NERV card identifying him as a member of Section Two. If he'd been some random burglar, then his intrusion into her apartment would've been a frightening but ultimately inconsequential event.

This…this meant that someone at NERV, probably the Commander or Fuyutski, felt that the rumors about her were worth investigating. If she hadn't come home early, the man would've made off with proof that she was Zatanna. The realization of how close she'd come to disaster made her feel shaky all over again.

_Geeze, pull it together, girl!_ She chastised herself. _First thing's first. Get this guy out of your place before his buddies come looking for him._

The brunette kneeled down next to man, pressing her hands to her temples. She concentrated, carefully wiping his short term memories and replacing them with false ones. Then she woke the man, who groaned softly as he opened his eyes, slowly got to his feet, and then walked out of her apartment, never giving any indication that he even realized Maya was there. When he got back to his companions, he would report that he had narrowly evaded detection by the resident of the apartment, and that no, he hadn't found anything that suggested she was Zatanna.

"Well, that's one problem solved," she said, going back to her chair and slumped down into it. "Now all I have to do is figure out how to stop this from happening again…"

Improving the magical wards she'd placed around her apartment was the obvious first step. She had set them up to only respond to hostile _Homo Magi_, in expectation that Klarion might try to pay her a visit at some point. However, it was now obvious that these were woefully inadequate.

_Too bad that stronger wards aren't a foolproof solution,_ she thought dourly.

It was quite impossible to erect wards that were both powerful enough to make a place impervious to intruders and subtle enough that people would walk away without realizing that supernatural forces were at work. If a magician struck the proper balance, she could get something that _usually_ worked, but "usually" simply wasn't good enough.

In other words, if NERV was really determined to discover the truth about whether or not she was Zatanna, she couldn't hope to stop them permanently.

_What I really need,_ she mused, tapping a finger to her chin,_ is some way to just get NERV to stop trying. But how do I convince them that investigating me is a waste of time?_

The answer occurred to her mere seconds after the question, but Maya felt no joy in coming up with a solution so quickly.

Yet there was nothing to be done for it. Maya went over to the phone and quickly dialed a number.

* * *

One thing that many of the peons at NERV tended to forget about Fuyutski was that he was a scientist. That he had, in fact, been a college professor before joining (getting drafted into) NERV, and that his expertise in the still new field of metaphysical biology had been of much use to the organization.

No, to most of the people in the proverbial trenches, he was just the Vice Commander.

However, the people who were a little higher up in NERV—those who actually interacted with him on a regular basis and were likely to have a more or less decent knowledge of his movements—were aware of his past practicing science.

Which was good, because it made his now regular meetings with Ritsuko look less suspicious. Most people would assume that they were just two scientists talking shop, and not concoct any wild rumors.

_Though considering that I'm old enough to be her father, maybe I wouldn't have to worry about that, anyway,_ Fuyutski mused with some dour amusement.

"Things aren't quite working out as we expected them to," he commented to her.

"That's an understatement," Ritsuko observed dryly. "Has _anything_ panned out the way we expected?"

"I suppose not," Fuyutski added. "But then again, I think we both half-expected this whole thing to fall apart catastrophically, right from the start, so perhaps that's a good thing." He added, attempting levity.

It was an attempt that failed. Ritsuko just glared at him darkly, then took out a cigarette and lit up.

The scientist had been smoking a bit less than she had been since resuming her relationship with the Commander, but her nicotine consumption was still far higher than it had been before Gendo mysteriously suffered from amnesia.

_She's gone from panicked to resigned,_ Fuyutski thought wearily.

"You were so certain that Bleak was a spy, but he hadn't tried poking into private NERV business at all," Ritsuko commented.

"Yes," Fuyutski agreed with a sigh, shaking his head. "I can't imagine why they sent him now, if not to spy on us. SEELE must have had _some_ purpose for sending us a useless pilot, but I don't know what that is. And that makes Bleak more dangerous."

"Hmph, perhaps they just sent him to make us paranoid," Ritsuko mused. "Honestly, what could he be doing that's so dangerous? The boy barely ever comes to the base anymore."

"I don't know, but SEELE sent him. That's reason enough to be wary of the boy," he said, resisting the urge to sigh again.

_I am in over my head,_ he mused grimly.

"So, how are things going with the Commander?" Ritsuko asked.

Fuyutski nearly replied by pointing out that she should know better than he did, then stopped himself at the last moment.

When he'd first learned that Ritsuko was seeing Gendo again, he'd initially believed that she was "taking one for the team" as it were, getting close to him so that she could better maintain the deception. It was only later that he'd realized the bottle blonde had resumed the relationship simply because she'd felt compelled to, even though there had apparently never been a great deal of affection in it. His expectations that she'd know more about Gendo and his current mental state than he had run head long into the reality that they didn't have much of relationship outside of the bedroom.

It had been an awkward moment, and he had no desire to repeat it.

"He's been keeping to himself even more than before," Fuyutski said. "I think because he feels vulnerable. He hasn't even been speaking to Shinji lately."

That had been a severe disappointment to the old man, who'd very much hoped that the unexpected clean slate could give father and son a chance to renew and improve their relationship. He knew that Gendo had taken some steps in that direction, but after that, the man had seemingly decided to postpone the issue indefinitely. Unfortunately, Shinji had proven willing to accept that.

"It's all worth it if we save the world, right?" Ritsuko asked, but her tone made it clear that she wasn't quite sure if she believed that.

"Yes," Fuyutski said firmly. "Yes, it is."

Before the bottle blonde could make any kind of reply, her phone beeped. Looking irritated, Ritsuko snatched it up and held the receiver to her ear. "What?" she demanded.

"Uh," the voice of Makoto hesitantly responded, "there's a…situation unfolding in the city. It might be best if you came to the command center."

"I understand," she replied, then promptly hung up the phone.

She relayed the tech's message to the Sub Commander, and they were soon on their way to the command center. Fortunately, Dr. Akagi's office was quite near to the nerve center of the entire base, and they made it there in only a minute.

"Where's the Commander?" Fuyutski asked, his eyes sweeping the room for his former student and not finding him.

"He's en route," Aoba answered.

The Vice Commander nodded. "All right," he said. "Now what exactly is going on here that's so important? Is an Angel attacking?"

"Not…exactly, sir," Makoto said hesitantly.

Fuyutski gave him an annoyed look. "I could use a little more detail than that, Lieutenant."

The tech winced. "I know. I'm sorry, sir, but…"

Makoto was saved as a massive _something_ flitted across the screen in a burst of motion. Fuyutski didn't have enough time to get a very good look at it; a glimpse was all he really got.

But that was enough for him to get a sense of the thing. The impossible, impossible thing.

"Lieutenant," he said slowly, now too surprised to even pretend to be annoyed. "was that—?"

Before he could finish, the thing passed in front of the camera again, and this time it stayed in range of the thing for longer than three-tenths of a second, allowing everyone to get a look at it.

It was a dragon.

A European-style dragon to be precise, as it more resembled a winged Tyrannosaurs-Rex than a gigantic snake. Its green scales shone in the bright light of the sun, and its leathery wings beat powerfully, propelling it through the air. Yet, amazingly, the dragon was not the most fantastic thing about the scene.

No, that would be the young woman who was _riding_ the dragon, her arms wrapped around its neck as she clutched onto it for dear life. She was clad in a tuxedo from the waist up and wore fishnet stockings on her long legs. A top hat sat on her head, and, impossibly, it remained firmly in place, not getting swept away by the wind.

"Zatanna," one of the junior technicians whispered softly.

Suddenly, most of the eyes on the bridge turned toward Maya, as though to confirm that she was actually there in the room with them. The petite brunette responded by trying to melt into her chair while simultaneously attempting to ignore the unwanted attention.

She wasn't doing a very good job of either.

"What do we do, sir?" Makoto asked after a few moments.

Fuyutski just stared blankly at the tech. The situation was just so utterly bizarre and completely unexpected that he had no _idea_ how to respond to it, and he came dangerously close to saying so.

Then he remembered that he was supposed to be the one in charge and promptly clamped down on the words before they could escape his throat. However, he still had no idea what to do.

_How the hell did I end up being the Vice Commander of NERV again?_ He wondered wearily.

Just as his silence was starting to draw out for too long, Fuyutski was rescued as one of the small personal lifts delivered Gendo Ikari onto the command center. The assembled technicians blinked in surprise at the sight of the Commander; it had been some time since they'd actually seen him.

"Mobilize the Evangelions, but do not launch them until I give the order," he said without preamble.

A chorus of "yes sir" met the Commander's order, and the technicians present scrambled to execute them. Fuyutski leaned close to Gendo to speak softly with the Commander.

"What are you thinking, Ikari?" he asked.

The barest trace of a smirk appeared on Gendo's face. "I'm thinking that NERV is charged with protecting Tokyo-3 from Angels, not dragons," he said. "I'm also thinking I want to see how Zatanna does."

Fuyutski couldn't stop the look he gave Gendo. If he hadn't known that Ikari had had his memory wiped clean some time ago, the man's current behavior wouldn't have given him even the slightest clue.

He wasn't entirely sure that was a good thing.

A collective gasp suddenly filled the command center, and Fuyutski saw why the moment he looked back at the view screen.

The dragon had finally succeeded in throwing Zatanna, and the magician was now plummeting through the air toward certain doom. However, the giant reptile didn't seem content to just wait for her to hit the ground and go splat. The beast circled back so it was flying toward the falling woman.

Tongues of flame escaped from between its teeth.

"No way," Aoba said. "No way…there's no way it can—"

It could. The dragon opened its mouth, and a _column_ of white hot-fire erupted out of it, blistering the air as it surged toward Zatanna.

Maya let out a small gasp as the flames washed over the woman's form. Several of the people on the bridge lowered their heads.

Then the fire dissipated, revealing the unscathed form of Zatanna still falling through the air. Some kind of blue barrier, almost like an AT field, shimmered around her body for a second before it vanished.

"Whoa," Makoto breathed. "She's incredible!"

Everyone else on the bridge studiously ignored him.

The magician waved her wand, and gravity momentarily lost its hold on her. She shot upwards, not downwards, and managed to smoothly land back on the dragon's neck again. The beast threw its head back and roared, obviously infuriated.

Zatanna didn't give it the opportunity to throw her again. She raised her wand, and there was a great flash of light, followed by a loud crack, like thunder.

The NERV personnel had no idea what exactly the magician had done, but it was obvious that it had had some impact on the dragon. The great reptile was now the one falling out of the sky, with Zatanna still clinging to its neck the whole way down.

"Estimated impact point?" Fuyutski asked.

Aoba clicked away at his keyboard for a second before bringing up a map of the area on one of the smaller monitors. "Well outside of the city limits, sir," he said, rather unnecessarily, as the blinking dot on the map made that quite clear.

The dragon crashed in a rice patty, sending up a great wave of water and mud. Zatanna rode the beast down the entire way, and she seemed unharmed by the impact, despite how far the dragon had fallen.

Now back on the ground, and with her foe quite unconscious, Zatanna hopped off the dragon and rose her wand once more. The image zoomed in on her; the NERV personnel could see her lips moving, but they had no idea what she was saying.

Then the picture on the main monitor dissolved into static.

"Somebody fix—!" Fuyutski began, only to stop himself as the image on the main screen returned to perfect clarity.

Zatanna and the dragon were gone. The only evidence that they'd ever actually been there was the large trench that the dragon's crash landing had created in the rice patty.

For a long moment, everyone in the command center was completely silent.

"Well, it seems that the situation didn't require NERV's attention after all," Gendo observed. "Cancel the mobilization orders."

"Yes, sir," Maya said.

Without another word, Gendo activated the lift he was standing on, departing from the command center as abruptly as he had arrived.

"…as you all were," Fuyutski ordered after a few seconds of awkward silence, before making his retreat with Dr. Akagi back to her office.

"Well, that was…interesting," the bottle blonde observed.

"Very," Fuyutski agreed dryly.

"And, it puts to bed all those rumors about Maya of all people being Zatanna," the scientist added, doing her best not to look smug.

She had always thought those stories were simply crazy, idle gossip that had quickly gotten out of control. She had hardly been able to believe that Fuyutski gave the rumors enough credence to send Section Two to investigate the rather mousy technician.

"I'm not so sure about that," the Vice Commander remarked thoughtfully.

"What? Why not?" Ritsuko demanded, surprised.

The older man shrugged his shoulders. "Well, doesn't the whole thing seem a little convenient for you?" he asked. "Zatanna's only appeared twice before, both times during an Angel attack. Yet now that we're looking into Ibuki, she makes this big, very ostentatious appearance while the lieutenant is sitting right in front of us?"

"While that might seem convenient, it still doesn't change the fact that no one can possibly be in two places at once, magic wand or no," Ritsuko countered.

Fuyutski briefly thought about asking how she could be so certain that Zatanna _couldn't_ be in two places at once, then thought better of it.

"I suppose you're right, and if Section Two hasn't found anything by now, they probably won't," he said instead. "Continuing to investigate her would just be a waste of resources. I'll order them to stop looking into her."

"Good," Ritsuko said. "Besides, you and I have bigger problems to worry about than Zatanna. Like keeping this whole charade going long enough to save the world. And hopefully not getting killed in the process." She added grimly.

Fuyutski stifled a groan. "Don't remind me."

* * *

Hours later, Maya Ibuki returned home to her apartment after a long day at NERV and found someone sitting on her couch, watching TV. Said person was a young woman who was wearing a black top hat along with what was otherwise a perfectly normal jeans and blouse combination.

"Maya-chan!" she exclaimed, rising from the couch.

"Hello, sister," Maya said, accepting a hug from the slightly older woman. "That was quite a performance you gave this afternoon."

Natsume Ibuki grinned, backing up a few steps so she could take a bow, plucking the top hat off her head as she did so. "Thank you, thank you, you're too kind," she said, then tossed the top at Maya.

The younger sister was surprised by the move but still managed to catch her hat with a minimum of difficulty.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack, by the way," she grumbled. "I asked you to make a big enough spectacle as Zatanna to get NERV's attention, not almost get yourself killed."

"I was never in any real danger. First rule of magic: nothing is as it seems," Natsume said, undoing the bun had her hair in and giving her head a good shake. Her dark locks cascaded down her shoulders.

"But still, a _dragon_?" Maya pressed.

"Eastern European Longtails are real softies if you know how to handle them," Natsume said. "Frankly, I think that having to wear a jogging bra two sizes too small in order to pass as you came closer to killing me than Draco did."

_I think I saw some cellulite on your legs back there!_ Maya instantly thought, and almost said.

Natsume always seemed to make comments that brought attention to the fact that she was significantly more well endowed than her younger sister. It was something that just seemed to happen—Natsume certainly wasn't the type to rub such things in her only sister's face—but it still never failed to annoy Maya to no end.

"Well, you didn't die or get hurt, so I guess everything worked out okay in the end," Maya said. "Thank you, sister, for helping me."

"Did it work, though?" Natsume asked. "Did we manage to misdirect NERV with this trick?"

Maya nodded. "Yes," she said, not trying to conceal her relief about it. "That stupid Section Two van _finally_ left."

"I'm glad I could help you," her sister said, becoming completely serious. "And now there's something I need you to do for me."

"What?" Maya asked, even though she already had a pretty good idea what her sister wanted.

"Come home with me, just for a day or two," Natsume said. "Talk to Dad. Try and make peace with him."

The younger sister sighed. "Natsume, we've been over this time and time again," she said. "I'm not going to talk to Dad unless I hear from him. If I try and bury the hatchet with him without anything from his side, he'll see me as just crawling back and begging for his forgiveness. I just know it."

"Maya—"

"I won't try and pretend that I don't owe you a favor, a big one, for this," Maya continued. "But I won't do that. I just—"

"Maya!"

"Yes?" the technician asked, blinking in surprise at the interruption.

"Maya…" Natsume began in a soft voice, "Dad is dying."

The younger sister gasped. "What?"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** First off, apologies to my readers for the delay in getting this chapter out. It needed more editing than usual, and then there was the craziness of the holidays to contend with.

Anyway, I have to admit that for Maya, the Thirteenth Angel was one I wasn't particularly looking forward to, and I think it shows here. We've got some interesting stuff coming down the pipe, though, as you can probably tell.

A somewhat belated Happy New Year to all, and thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. And thanks to my beta reader as well.

Anyway, now for a little fun.

* * *

Omake!

What Dreams May Come…

Finally, he was able to actually see the pair of extremely shapely legs that towered over him. Clad in fishnet stockings, the legs seemed to go on forever, and they were attached to a masked woman, who was wearing a top hat and a tuxedo.

_Okay, not dead,_ he decided. _Just dreaming._

The masked woman's attire was _far_ too risqué for her to be an angel from Heaven. Yet it was pretty much par the course for Toji's dreams. It was a bit odd that he didn't know who she was, though.

_Man, what happened to Misato in the cheerleader outfit?_ He wondered idly. _She still hasn't finished congratulating me on winning the championship game…though maybe it's just as well, considering how weird that dream went the last time I had it…_

* * *

"And Japan wins!" the announcer cried over the loudspeakers, just as the horn sounded, signaling the end of the game. "Japan wins! And it's all thanks to young star Toji Suzuhara!"

The crowd went wild, but Toji barely noticed, because a certain purple-haired woman in a cheerleader's outfit was running toward him, her significant endowment bouncing in a manner that was nothing short of mesmerizing.

"You won!" she exclaimed, embracing him. "You won! You were magnificent out there!"

"Whoa, easy there, babe," he said, gently taking hold of her shoulders and pushing her off of himself. "You don't want to hug me right now. I seriously need a shower first."

"Do you want me to wash your back?" she asked coyly.

He grinned. "Well, maybe I'd like you to do more than wash my back."

Misato's smile widened. "And what else would you like me to do for you, all-star?" she asked.

He looked around, confirming that no one in the crowd or any of his teammates were paying attention to him. Then he leaned forward and whispered into her ear.

"Wellll," Misato drawled, "I suppose that I could—"

"Oh, God, _enough already_!"

Startled, Toji looked around, seeing a green-skinned girl in a swimsuit-like garment hovering over him. He would've sworn that she wasn't there a moment ago.

"Wha…?" he stammered. Despite her alien features, she looked quite a lot like the class rep, and that angry gaze always left him paralyzed.

"Honestly, do you _have_ to always have such perverted dreams?" Miss Martian ranted. "I mean, half the stuff you ask your dream girls to do are things that no self-respecting woman would _ever_ consider!"

"I, um, I…" Toji babbled. This wasn't how this was supposed to go at all.

"And if you really _have_ to have dreams like this, can't you have them _a little more quietly?_" she raged. "Honestly, some of us are _trying to sleep!_"


	11. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Ten:** Family Matters

"What do you mean 'Dad is dying'?" Maya demanded.

The words didn't quite seem to make sense to her. She knew what they meant, of course, yet when applied to her own situation, to her own father, they seemed to somehow lose all meaning and become confusing.

Natsume Ibuki looked utterly miserable. She had hoped her younger sister wouldn't make this difficult. "I mean that Dad is dying," she said. "There isn't much to explain, is there?"

Running her fingers through her short brown hair, Maya started to pace around her apartment in agitation. This was not at all what she'd expected when she'd asked her sister for help in diverting NERV's attention away from her alter ego.

"I think there is," she said firmly.

Natsume sighed heavily. "Dad was diagnosed with leukemia some time ago. He's been steadily going downhill ever since," she elaborated. "I've tried using magic to heal him. It doesn't work." She added meaningfully.

Maya winced at that. One of the most inviolate rules of magic, one of the most consistent throughout the ages, was that it could neither stay the hand of death nor bring the departed back to life. Not in any pleasant fashion, anyway. If their father's illness wasn't responding to Natsume's healing spells, it was almost certain that the disease was going to kill him.

"No," Maya said. "No, that's crazy. Are you…are you sure you did the spell right?"

The idea of her father dying seemed impossible, as ludicrous as the thought of the sun rising in the west or the tides stopping. Takeshi Ibuki couldn't die, a part of her insisted with perfect confidence. He would forever remain the extremely stubborn man she remembered.

"Of _course_ I'm sure I did the spell right," Natsume said, offended. "He's other father, Maya. I did double check the incantation and try a few more times after my first attempt failed."

Maya slowly lowered herself onto the couch, part of her brain still balking at this news. The world seemed to take on a very surreal atmosphere, all of a sudden, and she almost thought she was dreaming.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" she asked softly.

Natsume sighed, sitting down next to her sister. "I was hoping I could get you to agree to come home and patch things up and _then_ tell you," she said. "But, well…"

"I was being as stubborn as Dad about it, all these years," Maya finished for her.

The older sister smiled weakly. "Yeah," she said. "And of course Dad's being as stubborn as Dad. He wants to see you, but he's not desperate enough to say 'You win' yet. I don't think he will be until…"

She trailed off, but Maya knew what she was going to say. Their father probably wouldn't be willing to concede victory until his final moments, when it would be too late.

"Like I said, I didn't want to tell you until you'd already agreed to try and bury the hatchet," Natsume continued, "but that clearly wasn't going to work. So now I'm telling you. Please, Maya, come home for a little while and talk to Dad. If you don't make peace with him soon, you'll lose your chance to."

"Yeah, I'll come home," the younger sister agreed, her eyes watering as it all started to sink in. "I just need to ask for a couple of days of leave. I'm sure that, under the circumstances, Dr. Akagi will…"

She didn't finish. The more mundane aspects seemed very unimportant right then, and she could barely think straight.

"How can Dad by dying?" she finally asked, stifling a sob. "How?"

"Everybody dies, Maya," Natsume reminded her younger sister gently. "All we can do is make sure Dad's at peace with it when he goes."

* * *

The next day, Shinji Ikari found himself deep in thought as he headed to another one of his tutoring sessions. He still couldn't quite get the last Angel battle out of his mind.

_Toji could have died, if not for Zatanna,_ he thought.

That knowledge had shaken him to his very core. He had almost become used to being in mortal danger himself, and Asuka and Rei had always been out there fighting the Angels alongside him. But Toji was supposed to be a civilian, he was supposed to be safe inside one of the shelters whenever the Angels came calling.

Yet he could've met his end that day if the masked magician hadn't intervened, and _she_ could have died, because Fuyutski had ordered them not to interfere while she and that giant rock monster she'd created fought the Angel.

Add in the way that the Angel had actually possessed an Evangelion, and the whole incident had been very chilling indeed, despite the positive outcome.

_Aw, just let it go,_ he told himself eventually, as he reached the door to Maya's apartment. _Everything came out okay in the end, so there's no reason to dwell on it…_

Knowing that, despite how sound this logic was, he'd probably end up dwelling on it quite a bit in the near future anyway, he put it out of his mind for the moment and rang the bell on the door to Maya's apartment.

For several long moments, no one answered. Shinji frowned; every other time he'd come here, Maya had always been very prompt when it came to answering the door. He rang the bell again, leaning toward the door as he did so and keeping his ears pricked. He could hear it go off inside the apartment.

Shinji waited another minute or two more, then shrugged, turning away.

"Guess she forgot about me," he sighed.

Just then, the door to the apartment opened, and Maya emerged. Shinji turned and stopped short the moment he got a look at her.

Her red and puffy eyes made it obvious that she'd been crying. In addition, Maya, whose attire was always neat but casual when he went to her apartment for a tutoring session was looking…frumpy. The shorts and oversized T-shirt she was wearing were both badly wrinkled, and the sleeves of the shirt had numerous wet spots of them. Probably from tears. Her hair, too, was rumpled, and he noticed (only because he was now looking for it) that she wasn't wearing any makeup.

Part of him, a small part, marveled over how, even in this state, Maya was still very pretty.

The rest of him quickly told that part to shut up and turned to more important matters.

"Maya? What's wrong?" he asked, feeling awkward but knowing that he couldn't just pretend that everything was normal. "Are you all right?"

"I've been better," she replied with a weak smile, clearly all too aware of the picture she was presenting. "What are you doing here, Shinji?"

"I thought we had a tutoring session today," he said, and despite the fact that there was something obviously very wrong in Maya's life, he couldn't help but feel just the tiniest bit annoyed. They had been doing this for weeks and weeks now, always on the same day and at the same time.

"Oh, that's right, we did!" Maya said, and she looked so abashed that Shinji felt his annoyance quickly withering away. "I'm sorry, Shinji. I meant to call you and let you know that I have to cancel today, but I guess I forgot."

"That's really okay, Maya," he reassured her. "What's wrong?"

"I, well, my sister came to visit me the other day, and she told me that our father is dying," the brunette answered.

Shinji's eyes widened slightly. "I'm so sorry," he said softly.

Maya nodded, wiping at her nose with a wadded up tissue she had clutched in her hand. "Thank you," she said. "He's been ill for a long time, but I didn't find out until just the other day."

Shinji blinked. "Why not?" he asked before he could stop himself.

"My father and I haven't spoken since I left for college," Maya answered. "We disagreed about my future. He wanted me to go into the family business, and I wanted to work with computers. I decided to pursue the career I wanted without his approval, and we've been estranged ever since."

"I see," Shinji replied, mostly because he didn't know what else to say.

"I thought I was right back then, and I still think I'm right now," Maya continued, as though she hadn't heard him at all. "But that doesn't mean I couldn't have picked up the phone and called him. Maybe seen if he was willing to agree to disagree with me."

"I guess," Shinji said, feeling more awkward by the second.

"I mean, he's my dad," Maya continued. It was clear that she was on a roll by this point and that she badly needed to get this out. "I missed him. As much as I didn't want to admit it myself, I missed him a lot. I should have at least _tried_ to patch things up with him, you know? A good daughter would have tried, and she would have known he was sick. I had no idea, and now he's dying."

"I'm so sorry, Maya," Shinji said, very tentatively reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. "At least you still have some time to—"

The instant he made contact with her, Maya abruptly threw her arms around him, crying into his shoulder. Surprised and somewhat panicked at the unexpected physical contact, the Third Child momentarily tried to pull away. However, Maya's grip was too tight for him to get away, and the brunette was too caught up in her own grief to even notice that he was making the attempt.

Eventually overcoming his initial response, Shinji slowly, awkwardly put his arms around her. He placed his hands on her back, being exceedingly careful to avoid touching anything he shouldn't.

They stayed like that for several moments, and probably would have remained in that position for a while longer, if not for the appearance of Maya's elderly neighbor in the hallway.

"Really, Ibuki, if you're going to live in sin with a much younger man, at least do it inside your own apartment," Mrs. Takanawa scolded as she unlocked the door to her own home.

Maya disengaged herself from Shinji to shoot the short, gray haired woman a scowl. "We are not—"

But Mrs. Takanawa wasn't listening. Opening the door to her apartment, she disappeared inside before the brunette could finish.

"Sorry, Maya," Shinji said sheepishly, blushing heavily.

"There's nothing for you to apologize for, Shinji. That woman has always been determined to believe the worst about me," she said wiping at her eyes. "If anything, I should apologize to you. I shouldn't have latched onto you like that. I completely soaked your shoulder."

"It's really fine," Shinji reassured her awkwardly. "So, um, are you going to go see your father?"

"Yes," Maya said. "I'm taking a couple of days off from my job, and I leave tonight."

"Ah, well…good luck," Shinji said. "I'll leave you to pack, or…whatever."

"Thanks, Shinji," Maya said. "And sorry again about not telling you that this week's tutoring session is off."

"It's fine," he said. "See you."

With that, the Third Child turned and walked off, his mind still preoccupied with heavy matters.

* * *

There were times when Gendo Ikari wondered what the hell his "past self" had been thinking. Frankly, unless he'd forgotten something _very_ important about his position and then had failed to relearn it after suffering from amnesia, being the Commander of NERV seemed to be about the most miserable position in the world.

The hours were long and unpredictable. Most of the work was intensely boring, consisting largely of signing reports and attending meetings. The salary was surprisingly low (though considering the size of his bank account, he supposed this was really a non-issue).

Most of the time, it didn't feel like the sort of work that was essential for saving the world, and Gendo wondered how his pre-amnesia self had gotten roped into it.

Nevertheless, he kept on with it, largely because he felt very sure that quitting wasn't an option for a man in his position. Still, that didn't mean that he had to _like_ his job.

So, all in all, Gendo was quite pleased when his reading of NERV's monthly budget was interrupted by the sound of the intercom in his phone going off.

"Ikari here," he said, picking up the receiver.

"Commander," the voice of his wizened old secretary replied, "the Third Child is here to see you, if you're free."

Gendo frowned, surprised. He and his son hadn't seen very much of each other since he'd taken Shinji out to lunch that one day.

"Send him in," he said.

"Yes, sir," the secretary replied.

A moment later, the large door to his office opened, and Shinji walked in, looking around with an expression of mild surprise. Gendo didn't have to guess why; he had turned up the lights in the office significantly, which dramatically reduced the eerie atmosphere of the large room.

"Have a seat, Shinji," Gendo invited him, gesturing toward the room's lone guest chair.

"Thank you, Father," the Third Child said awkwardly, sitting.

"So, what brings you here?" Gendo asked, doing his best to sound amicable and not show just how ill at ease he was in the presence of his own son, who was still as great of an enigma to him as just about everything else had been.

Shinji didn't answer immediately. Instead, the boy looked down at his nervously twitching hands, not making eye contact with his father. "Do you remember how, the last time we spoke, you said you'd like it if we could just sort of, you know, reset our relationship and start over?"

"Yes, I do," Gendo nodded, getting a good idea of what Shinji wanted now.

Though he remained outwardly as stoic as ever, the Commander had to resist the urge to squirm uncomfortably.

"Well, you said that, even though your job takes up a lot of time, you'd try and make time to see me," Shinji continued. "But I've barely seen you at all, since then." He added with just a touch of accusation in his tone.

Gendo sighed. "Yes, I suppose that's true. I'm sorry about that, Shinji," he said.

The way his son's eyes bugged out when he spoke those words wasn't lost on him.

"At the time, I didn't realize just how _much_ of time this job would consume," Gendo confessed. "To be perfectly honest, it seems that I wouldn't be able to make more than token efforts at building bridges with you until the war is over. It just seemed more…prudent to wait until then. Still, I should have told you that my intentions had changed slightly."

He didn't admit that there was a part of him that was intimidated at the prospect of trying to bond with his son. Clearly, their relationship had soured in the past, so who was to say that it wouldn't happen again? And on a more purely practical matter, what on Earth would they talk about? He didn't remember most of his damn life.

"I…I understand that, Father. I really do," Shinji said, and for a moment, Gendo hoped that the whole, uncomfortable scene would come to an end right there. "But…who's to say that we'll get that chance? I mean, well, a friend of mine, her father's dying, and she's rushing home to try and fix things between them before he passes away. It just made me think that we shouldn't wait. I could die during any of the next Angel battles, and it's not impossible that something might happen to you. And, if it does, well, I don't want to have put off trying to fix things between us, Father."

Gendo regarded Shinji for a long moment, then he picked up the receiver of his phone and punched in his secretary's extension.

"Yes, Commander?" she said.

"Clear my schedule for this afternoon," he ordered. "I'm going to be spending some time with my son."

Shinji's eyes lit up. The secretary responded with several seconds of stunned silence, then agreed.

* * *

The graveyard that Klarion Bleak found himself in was not at all like the one where Yui Ikari's empty resting place could be found. That, like most of the cemeteries to be found within the modern, affluent part of Tokyo-3, was a clean and orderly place, almost sterile in its uniformity.

Klarion couldn't _get_ to any of those cemeteries right now, not without calling a lot of unnecessary attention to himself. After he'd raised several of the dead bodies in one of them, the city had assigned watchmen for all of them.

"Can you believe how horrified everyone was about it?" Klarion asked Teekl, reaching over to stroke the cat, which was perched on his shoulder. "They actually called it desecration."

To the Witchboy, who came from a place where much of the heavy labor was performed by the reanimated dead, their reaction had struck him as nothing short of bizarre.

Then again, so much about the world above Limbo Town was bizarre; he supposed he shouldn't be surprised.

"It's a wonder that anything ever gets done around here, with no grundies to do the work, technology or no," Klarion commented. "Don't you think so, Teekl?"

The cat purred.

So, Klarion had been unable to visit any of the cemeteries in the better part of the city. However, the graveyard where he stood, which was full of tilted, half-sunken, and mismatched headstones, was not such a place. The cemeteries on the edges of the city were quiet still unguarded.

The perfect place for him to "harvest."

He raised the Submissionary's rod. "By hex and scourge, I command thee dead, awaken!" he shouted. "Rise, grundies! _Rise!_"

Several hands burst out of the soft and grassy soil, and seconds later, the grundies had manage to dig themselves out and stood before him.

One of them had only been in the ground for a few days; its tongue and vocal cords hadn't decayed enough yet to prevent it from forming words. "What do you want from us, master?" it gurgled.

"For now, nothing," Klarion replied. "Soon, though, all of you will help me in my final attack on Zatanna."

* * *

Maya felt like she was in a dream.

The house where she'd grown up had somehow ceased to be quite real to her, during the years since she'd left. Yet here she was, and god help her, the place looked _exactly_ the way she remembered it, right down to the very smallest detail.

"Don't believe in remodeling?" she asked her sister, then wanted to kick herself. That had to be about the stupidest question she'd ever come up with.

Fortunately, Natsume didn't seem to mind. "I never had any flare for interior decorating," she said. "Or exterior decorating, for that matter. Neither did Dad."

"No, I guess not," Maya said distantly as her sister unlocked the front door so they could enter.

Everything on the inside of the house had remained the same, too, but at least the furniture and the paint were showing some signs of age and wear. The place wasn't decrypt, but it wasn't as new as she remembered, that was for sure.

Maya actually took a bizarre sense of comfort from this. It was proof that time actually had passed, something a tiny part of her had had started to wonder about.

"Dad's upstairs," Natsume said. "You remember which room is his, right?"

"Yes, of course," Maya said, caught between indignation and fear.

Indignation at the notion that she might have forgotten her childhood home so completely, fear at the thought of going up to face her father alone.

She almost asked Natsume to go with her, then caught herself at the last moment. Taking a deep breath, Maya headed up the stairs. Stopping at the door to her father's bedroom, she knocked quietly on the door.

"Come in," a very ragged sounding man's voice answered.

Maya slowly opened the door and poked her head inside.

This room, at least, had changed from what she remembered. Her father's silly old four-poster bed had been replaced by a hospital bed, and much of the furniture had been removed to make room for various pieces of medical equipment.

Still, she barely noticed that, despite the amount of attention she'd been paying to her surroundings earlier. Her focus was entirely dominated by the man sitting up in the hospital bed.

Maya could barely believe he was her father. He was painfully thin and looked like a strong wind would blow him away, if not kill him. Most of his hair had fallen out and what few strands remained were gray, limp, and as thin as a spider's thread.

He looked so, so much older than Takeshi Ibuki ever should have.

"Dad?" she said softly.

He smiled weakly but sincerely. "Maya," he said. "Please, have a seat." He indicated a small chair next to his bed using only his eyes, as though turning his head would have cost him too much effort.

Which, Maya realized, it probably would have.

"Hi, Dad," the brunette said, settling down into the chair. She found she didn't know what else to say.

"It's good to see you, Maya," her father said. "I wanted to see you again, before…" he trailed off.

"I'm so sorry, Dad," Maya blurted out. Her old argument with her father suddenly seemed so petty and stupid.

"What for?" he asked.

"For getting so mad at you and just leaving," she said, her eyes tearing. "For holding a grudge over something so dumb for so many years. I should've…I should've…"

"You don't have anything to be sorry for," Takeshi said, with a minute shake of his head. "It's this foolish old man who should apologize. You wanted to have your own life, and I tried to stand in your way."

"I should have made room for both computers and magic in my life," Maya insisted.

For a moment, both father and daughter were silent. Then, they both started to chuckle at the absurdity of all of it. After years and years of their long distance clash of wills, they were arguing over the blame.

Then her father winced, apparently feeling a stab of pain, and both of them stopped laughing.

"The more I think about it, though," Maya said, sober again, "the more I think that you were at least partially right. There are definitely some things magic can do that computers can't."

"Like battling the Angels?" he asked knowingly.

Maya followed the path of his eyes, which led to a small table where a copy of the _Tokyo Tattler_ sat, with Zatanna (and her fishnet stockings) gloriously displayed on the cover. The brunette blushed; she hadn't even noticed the tabloid before then. She'd been too fixated on her father.

"You figured it out, huh?" she asked.

He smirked. "Hard not to."

Maya shook her head. "You must think I'm a terrible hypocrite."

"No, Maya, I don't. I'm proud of you. I'm sure you've helped a lot of people, and I know it couldn't have been easy for you to swallow your pride enough to use magic," he said. "Though I do wonder at your choice of costumes…"

"Dad!" the brunette blushed fiercely, suddenly feeling like a teenager again. "I didn't…I mean…I needed something that no one would recognize me in, and that getup certainly qualifies!"

She didn't want to tell him about the job she'd been forced to accept in her college days. There was no point to that now.

Her father chuckled, but there was a certain cautiousness about it that was terrible to observe, as though he was afraid he'd hurt himself again. "You remember how, the day you left, I said that the world's _Homo Magi_ could have repaired the world after Second Impact? That the only reason we didn't was because the normal people would learn nothing if we solved all their problems?" he asked.

Maya nodded.

"That's not true," Takeshi confessed. "We had the raw power needed, yes, but trying to get that many _Homo Magi_ to work together would have been like herding cats."

"I think we can just agree that we were both wrong," Maya said. She moved to carefully hug him. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you, too," he said softly.

Maya pulled back, wiping at her eyes.

"So, how long do you plan on staying?" Takeshi asked her.

"I only managed to get a couple of days off," Maya said. "I'll call NERV in a little bit and see if I can get some sort of extended leave. I'm not sure they can spare me for very long, but under the circumstances I'm sure that they'll at least—"

"No, Maya," her father interrupted her.

"What?"

"You have important things to do back in Tokyo-3," he said. "Things that can't you can't put off until after I go."

"But, Dad, I haven't ever been here for you, not since I left home," Maya protested. "I can't just leave you now."

"And yet…you must," Takeshi said, his voice surprisingly firm, considering that he was wheezing slightly. "I'll be fine. I'm just glad I got to see you again. Your sister can hold my hand, when it's time."

"Dad, I…I don't like this," Maya said, unable to deny the logic.

"I'm not too thrilled about it myself, but…it is what it is," he said. "Sometimes…life isn't kind. We just…do the best we can with what we have."

His eyes drifted closed then, and he slipped into a peaceful sleep. Maya sat with him for a few minutes, then, satisfied that he wasn't going to be waking up any time soon, she crept out of the room and rejoined her sister downstairs. Natsume was just setting a couple of cups of tea down on the coffee table.

"So? How did it go?" she asked, her expression guarded.

It took every ounce of Maya's willpower to stop herself from going to pieces right there. Their father had looked so _old_, it broke her heart. Still, she'd had her fill of that earlier and had been caught at it by Shinji, to boot. She didn't need to start crying again.

"It went…well," she said. "Dad and I are on good terms again. I just wish it hadn't taken a terminal illness to make it happen."

"I wish that, too," Natsume said, handing Maya a steaming mug of coffee. "Here, drink. You look like you could use it."

She took a sip. The hot liquid burned her tongue, and Maya immediately decided she'd wait before taking another sip. "I suppose I owe you an apology, too," she said softly. "You shouldn't have had to look after Dad all by yourself. You wouldn't have had to, if only I hadn't been so pigheaded."

"If only the two of you hadn't been so pigheaded," Natsume corrected with a tiny, dry smile that looked as brittle as hundred year old parchment. "And I've been stubborn, too. Guess it runs in the family. I should have told you sooner that Dad was sick. I just wanted you to come back without knowing that there was a time limit hanging over you."

Maya nodded, grateful that her sister didn't seem to resent her. They were quiet for several minutes, and Maya finally ventured to start drinking her tea again.

"So…what's your plan?" Natsume eventually spoke up.

"I have a couple of days leave, but once they're used up, I'm going back to Tokyo-3," Maya answered. "I offered to stay, but Dad said that he knew there were things I have to do back there." She quickly added.

Natsume nodded. "I expected as much," she said. "Would you wait here for a second?"

Maya nodded, and the older sister disappeared into another room of the house. She returned a few moments later, holding a top hat in her hands, which she handed to her sister.

"This belonged to Dad," Natsume said. "He told me he wanted you to have it."

Studying the hat, Maya saw that while its design was almost identical to the one she wore when she went out as Zatanna, it was of a much higher quality. She knew it also had supernatural properties that hers didn't, as well.

"No," she said, holding it out to Natsume. "I can't take this. You were the good daughter. You were the one who went into the family business, and took care of him. You should get everything."

"Oh, believe me, I'll be getting the lion's share of the inheritance," Natsume said, with just a trace of bitterness. "But Dad thought that you could get more use out of this than me, given your…activities lately. And I agree with him. Take it, Maya."

With a small sigh, Maya placed the top hat onto her head. It fit perfectly, far better than the one she'd been using.

"It suits you," Natsume said.

"Thank you," Maya replied quietly, deciding that she had been unfair to magic, for all these years.

* * *

Shinji blinked repeatedly as the test plugs opened up, allowing the light from the room to stream inside. The inside of the plugs never _seemed_ dim at the time, but he always had to squint when he got out, all the same.

"The test is concluded," the voice of Ritsuko Akagi came from a group of nearby speakers. "You're done for the day."

Relieved, Shinji quickly got out, heading to the locker to take a quick shower and change into his regular clothes. Once he was done, he left and headed to a computer terminal to check his latest synch score.

…though not before casting a furtive eye around, first, to make sure that Asuka wasn't around. For someone who professed complete disinterest in him most of the time, she tended to be very curious about his synch scores indeed.

Punching in his MAGI username and password (he knew them quite well now), Shinji was soon able to bring up his score.

"Wow," he said.

He had done quite well. In fact, while he never would have told Asuka as much, he was starting to suspect that he might well have surpassed her.

Not that he was at all surprised that his score had gone up, Shinji mused as he logged off from the terminal and headed down one of the halls. He had been in an unusually good mood ever since spending the previous afternoon with his father.

The Third Child couldn't help but smile as he thought back to it. For the most part, it had been a very awkward few hours with his father, with neither of them really knowing what to say and just going through the motions of father-son bonding. Toward the end, Shinji had been nearly ready to abandon their efforts as hopeless.

Then his father had turned to him, saying he had reviewed the previous Angels battles.

_"I don't know what possessed me to force you to pilot with no training. Perhaps I was desperate. That information is lost to me now,"_ he had said. _"But, I do know that I'm proud of you. You've been very brave, Shinji."_

Shinji had never expected to hear his father say something like that. To hear those words from him, well, the Third Child was actually feeling…proud of himself.

Naturally, as so often happened when Shinji Ikari was feeling positive emotions, the universe felt the need to intervene. The base's alarms started shrieking, red light flashing all throughout the hallways.

Shinji knew what this meant. _Of course_ he knew what the alarms meant. As an Evangelion pilot, the alarms were one of the _first things_ that NERV had taught him about. Still, knowing and believing were two different things.

_This can't be really happening,_ he thought, feeling dazed all of a sudden. _It's only been a couple of days since the Thirteenth showed up! There's always been much longer between attacks!_

Unsure of what to do, Shinji flagged down a NERV Security officer who was quickly making his way down the hall.

"Excuse me," he said, "do you know what's going on?" he asked, hoping to learn that it was just a drill or something.

The man looked at Shinji as though he was stupid. "The Fourteenth Angel is attacking."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And here we have a (hopefully) emotional chapter. No action here, but there's plenty coming up next time.

Not much else to say here, so thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	12. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Eleven:** Battle

Shinji knew that there was no reason for him to be feeling _this_ jittery.

Yes, an Angel was bearing down on Tokyo-3, and an Angel attack was always a very serious issue. However, this was hardly the first time that the Third Child had dealt with one of those, and it wasn't like NERV was in some terrible position. The Evangelions were all fully battle ready, not having endured so much as a scratch from the previous battle.

Maybe it was because this Angel was coming right on the heels of the previous one. Maybe it was because he knew the last battle could have gone _much_ worse if not for Zatanna, and that there was certainly no guarantee that the masked magician would make a repeat appearance.

Whatever the reason, Shinji had a _bad_ feeling about the Fourteenth Angel.

"Okay, guys," Misato said, as a window displaying her visage appeared on his HUD, "this one somehow managed to get pretty damn close before we detected it, and it's chewing straight through our defenses like a hot prog knife through butter. There's no time to deploy you to the city, so you're going to have to face it in the Geofront."

"Roger," Shinji somehow managed to get out, even as he forced down the bile trying to rise up in his throat.

They wouldn't be fighting in an empty city this time. Instead, they'd have to face the Angel with the NERV pyramid right at their backs. If the Evangelions fell, or if they even let an attack get by them, countless people in headquarters could die.

_Father and Misato could die,_ he thought grimly.

Shinji took a deep breath, doing his best to keep himself calm in the face of such a chilling reality.

At least, he consoled himself, Maya was safe and sound, out of Tokyo-3 on her visit to her ailing father.

"You okay, Third?" Asuka asked, as a communications window from Unit Two popped up on his screen. "You look like you're about to be sick."

"I'm fine," he said, noting sourly that Asuka looked eager and excited to be taking on an Angel, as usual.

The Evangelions arrived on the Geofront floor then, having quickly completed the short trip from the cage. "Okay, guys, we've deployed a weapons cache for you to use," Misato told them. "The Angel's going to break through the roof any second now, so arm yourselves quickly."

"Roger," the pilots said, each of them moving to obey.

To Shinji, the weapon's cache looked like a massive crate of armaments had thrown up on the Geofront floor next to the pyramid. He quickly selected a pallet rifle, while Asuka snatched a pair of rocket launchers and Rei took the Type-XIX positron rifle.

"Come to mama, big boy," he heard Asuka mutter under her breath as they all pointed their weapons at the ceiling, waiting for their enemy to show itself.

Shinji wondered if Asuka had simply forgotten that she had an open comm. channel with Unit One, or if he was actually supposed to hear that.

Then a ball of flame bloomed into existence on the Geofront roof. From a distance, it looked tiny, but Shinji knew that it was the size of a city block, if not even larger. The fire and smoke cleared a moment later, finally revealing the latest Angel to the pilots.

It was…blocky. That was the word that first jumped to Shinji's mind. With only stubby arms and legs, its mostly black and white body was almost rectangular. It had no head, though a plate of bone on its front gave it the appearance of possessing ghastly face.

"Light it up!" Asuka roared, and Shinji and Rei obeyed without thinking, firing their weapons.

For several seconds, the Evangelions fired massive rockets, shells too large to be used by most tanks, and even streams of antimatter at the Angel, once more hiding it in a cloud of fire as it was consumed by the explosions.

"Hold fire!" Misato barked eventually, and the trio of Evangelions halted their barrage.

A very pregnant pause consumed the Geofront, silence ringing in the massive cave in the aftermath of the cacophony of weapons fire. Everyone in NERV knew that nothing built by the hands of man—not even Evangelion-grade armor—could have possibly withstood _that_ assault. By all rights, their attack should have reduced the Angel to bloody chunks, if not have vaporized it completely.

The plume of fire dissipated…and the Angel was still there, looking no worse for the wear.

"No, that's impossible!" Asuka exclaimed in denial. "We've taken down its AT field, haven't we?" she demanded.

"Yes," the grim voice of Hyuga Makoto answered her. "All our readings show that the phase space has been neutralized. It seems like the Angel's just that tough."

Asuka responded by cursing in German before firing the last few rockets she had left. These, too, impacted solidly against the Angel, but produced absolutely no effect.

"What do we do now?" Shinji asked, trying and failing to keep the fearful little quaver out of his voice.

"Artillery's obviously ineffective," Misato said. "We're going to have to try melee combat. There should be plenty of progressive weapons there for you to choose from."

The pilots quickly turned back to the cache, selecting their new weapons as quickly as possible. So far, the Fourteenth Angel seemed content to merely shrug off everything they threw at it and look menacing, but they all knew that couldn't last for more than a few seconds longer.

Grabbing a progressive spear, Shinji had a very brief, bizarre thought, wondering why there was no progressive katana in NERV's arsenal. The lack of one just seemed so against typical giant robot conventions.

"Okay, First, Third, you flank this thing," Asuka commanded them. "I'm going to attack head on."

Shinji wasn't sure if this was the wisest move in the world, but there was no time to argue about it; after slowly descending into the Geofront, the Angel's stubby legs had finally reached the ground.

Carefully, slowly, Units One and Zero started to move in wide arcs toward the Angel, while the crimson Unit Two made a beeline straight for it. Yet before any of them could make very much progress toward their enemy, the Angel's stubby arms unfurled, becoming long and thin. The Evangelions paused, their pilots wary of this new development.

Then the arms lashed out at _incredible_ speeds, traveling the distance between the Angel and Unit One in a heartbeat. One of the appendages wrapped around the Evangelion's waist and lifted the enormous war machine into the air like it was no more than a toy, while the other encircled its right wrist, preventing it from using its progressive spear.

"Ah!" Shinji screamed as it squeezed Unit One's torso tighter and tighter. The sound of the Evangelion's thick armor starting to crumple like a soda can could clearly be heard all throughout the Geofront.

"Get off of him!" Asuka yelled, abandoning her course for the Angel itself and rushing to Unit One's rescue. One mighty swing of the progressive axe she was wielding severed the arm holding Unit One's waist, causing the violet Evangelion to go tumbling back to the ground.

Unfortunately, the Angel didn't seem very badly fazed by losing several meters of its limb. Without missing a beat, the beast immediately started lashing out at Unit Two with its free arm, jabbing at the crimson Evangelion like a prize fighter.

It was here that Asuka's years of EVA training showed; despite the Fourteenth Angel's incredible speed, she managed to dodge the blows with quick, efficient movements, at least up to a point. Several times, the edge of the Angel's thin but deadly arm grazed her EVA, slicing through the armor with disturbing ease and drawing azure blood. Asuka's face twisted into a grimace at the sharp needles of pain these successful attacks sent through her.

"Little help here, Shinji!" she demanded.

"Working on it!" he replied in an equally strained voice.

The Angel's other arm still had a firm grip on Unit One's wrist, and he knew there was little he could do to help until he managed to get himself free, especially considering that the Angel's body was still well out reach for the two of them. Try as he might, however, he couldn't liberate himself from the beast's painfully tight grip with brute strength alone.

Growing increasingly desperate, he gave his EVA a mental command, and one of its shoulder pylons opened, revealing his progressive knife. Awkwardly, he managed to grasp it with Unit One's left hand (no easy task, especially since that the knife was kept in the left shoulder pylon), and raised the weapon, preparing to cut himself free.

The Fourteenth Angel must have realized what he planned to do, because the instant before he could act, the beast gave Unit One a ferocious and unexpected shake. Caught by surprise, Shinji only narrowly managed to keep his Evangelion on its feet, but the progressive knife was sent flying out of his hands, spinning through the air. It eventually came to a landing on the ground, far out of reach.

_Damn it!_ He thought, having no idea what he was supposed to do now. All he knew was that if didn't think of something, they were going to be in real trouble, and that the responsibility for their fate would be all his.

Yet as he cast his gaze about every which way, frantically attempting to come up with some kind of plan, he happened to spot the prototype Evangelion, which he had all but forgotten about by this point. Unit Zero was creeping toward the Fourteenth Angel, like a lion stalking a gazelle. It didn't seem to notice the blue Evangelion's presence, and Shinji felt hope flare up within him. If she could sucker punch the core…

Apparently Rei had the same thought he did. Unit Zero swung the progressive axe it was carrying at the ruby sphere.

Only for an armored shutter to snap shut over the core like an eyelid, preventing a lethal blow to the Angel. Shinji wanted to cry out at the unfairness of this whole battle.

Not that the Angel would have cared, of course. Not giving Rei a moment to respond, it turned, and the holes in its bony face plate lit up with an ominous violet light. A second later, a blindly bright blast of energy erupted forth.

Shinji heard Rei scream. Frantically blinking spots out of his vision, he quickly saw the cause of the First Child's distress. Unit Zero's left arm had been separated from the rest of its body, and blood was gushing from the stump.

Not was the Angel finished. It loomed menacingly over the blue Evangelion, its eye sockets lighting up once more.

_"No!_" Shinji yelled.

The restraints holding Unit One's jaw shut shattered, and the violet Evangelion wasted no time in using its new freedom. With one great chomp, it bit the Angel's arm into two pieces, finally liberating itself from the beast's grip. Then, releasing a massive roar that seemed to shake the Geofront, Unit One sprinted toward the Angel at top speed, kicking up great chunks of earth as it went. Crashing gracelessly into the Fourteenth Angel, it tackled the monster to the ground, causing its energy attack to shoot harmlessly up into the air, well away from Unit Zero.

The Angel's response to Unit One's attack was immediate and brutal. Both its arms slammed into the test type Evangelion's side, leaving deep dents in the armor and all but sending the massive war machine flying into the air. It skipped across the Geofront floor like a stone across a lake, finally coming to a stop not far from the NERV pyramid.

Groaning, Shinji shakily managed to get Unit One back to its feet. The Third Child was unsurprised to see that the Fourteenth Angel was readying itself for another energy blast. He almost got out of the way without thinking, but then he stopped himself as he made a very unpleasant realization.

He was standing right in front of the pyramid. If he evaded the Angel's next attack, the energy blast would hit headquarters.

"Oh, no," he breathed.

"Shinji!" Misato cried. "Move!"

He ignored her. "AT field full power," he whispered instead, throwing all his willpower into the task of making the invisible barrier as powerful as he possibly could.

The Angel fired, and the energy blast slammed into Unit One's AT field. For just the briefest of moments, Shinji thought he might manage to stave off the ferocious attack. But the proximity of the Angel and its AT field weakened Unit One's field, and the usually impenetrable barrier crumpled.

"_Ahh!_" Shinji screamed as the destructive energy washed over him, the flare of light momentarily seeming to wipe Unit One out of existence.

Of course, it didn't, though perhaps that would have been more merciful. The force of the attack knocked the purple colossus off its feet, and it crashed down to the ground, avoiding the NERV base by only a few hundred meters, a hair's breadth by EVA standards. Yet being thrown through the air like a rag doll was hardly the worst of it.

Nearly all of the armor on Unit One's front was partially melted and glowing orange with the heat. As the other pilots and everyone in the NERV command center looked on in horror, the violet giant raised its head, as though trying to get up. Then a low groan from Shinji came from Unit One's speakers, and the Evangelion went limp, the eyeholes in its helmet going dark and lifeless.

In the horrified silence that followed, the Angel soundlessly levitated toward Unit One, clearly intent on finishing the job.

It never even got close.

Unit Zero swung its progressive axe at the beast with its remaining arm, the blade burying itself into the Angel's tough hide with a loud _thunk!_ The beast staggered, and the blue Evangelion pressed its advantage, raining punches and kicks down on it.

A moment later, Unit Two joined in, assaulting the Angel with equal ferocity. It wasn't long before they had the thing down on the ground. The crimson EVA reached for the core, and the Angel immediately moved to close those armored shutters again. However, this was exactly was Asuka had expected; quick as lighting, she reached out, grabbing them and preventing them from closing all the way.

"Rei!" she shouted. "Do it!"

The First Child didn't need to ask what "it" was. One of Unit Zero's pylons opened, revealing its progressive knife. Grabbing the hilt of the weapon, she thrust it down at the core with every bit of force that the prototype Evangelion could muster. The blade plunged deep into the ruby sphere, and light started to pour out of the breach.

"Move, you two!" Misato commanded them. "It's gonna blow!"

Units Zero and Two both dove away from the Angel, just as the core erupted into blinding light that momentarily seemed capable of rivaling the sun itself. When the light faded, virtually nothing of the Fourteenth Angel remained, only a crater and the amount of devastation it had caused remaining as testaments to its existence.

"This battle is over," Misato announced. "Get Shinji's plug out of Unit One, and get him back to base, now."

* * *

About an hour later, the base was consumed by the usual scramble of frantic activity that gripped NERV after almost every battle. The scientists scrambled to collect samples of the Angel, most of which had a distressing tendency to decompose at a very rapid pace as soon as they died. The engineers and technicians rushed to assess the damage caused by the Angel and rectify the most critical as soon as possible. And, of course, the command staff rushed to try and get a little bit ahead of the bureaucratic nightmare that invariably followed every conflict.

Or at least, most of the command staff was. Misato, who had long ago realized that the aftermath of every Angel battle would include an avalanche of paper no matter _what_ she did, was currently in the waiting room of the NERV Medical ward.

Seated on one of the uncomfortable chairs and pretending to read one of the absurdly old magazines, Misato was ostensibly waiting for Asuka and Rei's obligatory post-sortie checkups to finish so she could take them home. However, absolutely no one believed that; it was obvious that she was waiting for word on the Third Child, who had been rushed to the ICU as soon as they'd gotten him out of his entry plug.

"Major, I knew I'd find you here."

Misato jumped; her whole attention had been on the door which lead deeper in the ward, and the voice had come from behind her.

"Oh, Commander," she said, quickly regaining her composure and getting up. "What can I do for you, sir?"

Instead of answering her question, he asked, "Waiting for news on the Third Child?"

"Ah, yes, sir," Misato admitted, deciding there was no point in trying to hide her true motives.

There was something different about the Commander lately, she decided. Though Misato still had no idea where or why he'd holed himself up for so many weeks, the man had definitely come out of his self-imposed isolation more…human than before.

"I'm afraid I've beaten you to it," he told her. "The staff called me and updated me on his status a few minutes ago."

For a moment, the Ops Director felt a wave of indignation wash over her. Here she was, sitting in the damn waiting room, no more than ten feet away from the front desk, and they had called the Commander instead.

Then she remembered that the Commander was, after all, Shinji's father, so notifying him first of a change in the Third Child's condition did make a bit of sense.

"How is he, sir?" she asked.

"Fine, for the most part," Gendo answered, and Misato felt her shoulders sag with relief, tension she had nearly forgotten about leaving her frame all at once. "There was some minor burning; the Third Child's synch ratio is significantly higher than it was when he leapt into Mount Asuma. I understand it was also quite a shock to his system, so they plan to keep him under observation in the ward for a few days. However, he is expected to make a full recovery."

"Thank you for informing, sir," Misato said gratefully.

Gendo nodded absently, glancing at the door which lead into the ward itself before turning his attention back to the Ops Director. "I expect to be tied up in meetings for the next several days. The Committee will no doubt wish to drag me over a bed of hot coals for allowing an Angel to penetrate the Geofront in such a fashion," he said, as though discussing the weather. "Please convey my congratulations to Pilot Soryu and Pilot Ayanami. They both performed well against an extremely powerful foe."

"I'll let them know, sir," Misato said, even as she frowned slightly, wondering why he hadn't mentioned Shinji.

"And tell my son that he was very brave, and that he no doubt saved a number of lives," Gendo said. "Though I suppose I will eventually have to issue some sort of punishment for the way he ignored your order." He added absently.

Misato blinked. "Yes, sir."

"Good evening, Major," Gendo said with a nod, and with that, he turned and walked out, leaving a very surprised Ops Director behind him.

* * *

Two days later, Maya Ibuki arrived back in Tokyo-3, after enduring a truly hellish series of train rides to get there. The tracks outside the city had been badly mangled in several places by the Angel, and she was thus forced to switch rail lines no less than half a dozen times in the relatively short journey.

Also, she somehow she seemed to end up with a kid kicking the back of her chair on _every_ train she was stuck riding. Truly, it took all the magician's willpower to resist the urge to hex the brats.

Finally, she made it back to the city, gaping at the new destruction. Her MAGI passwords had allowed her to stay up to date on what had happened in her absence from the city, but reading about it and seeing it were two very different things. The Fourteenth Angel had carved out a path of destruction through the city, leaving nothing but rubble in its wake. Other Angels had created as much havoc, but not in such a short period of time. Also, the Fourteenth was the first to so casually penetrate the Geofront with sheer brute force.

Maya shuddered slightly at the thought of a monster with _that_ much firepower, feeling guiltily glad that she had been out of Tokyo-3 during the battle.

Heading over to her apartment, the brunette dropped off her suitcase and changed into one of her NERV uniforms. Departing again, she made a quick stop at a fast food place, grabbing a bento box, and then made her way to NERV. The base was still very much a flurry of activity following the last battle, and no one even bothered to give her a second look as she headed to the Medical Ward.

"Shinji?" she called, knocking on the door to the hospital room where NERV was keeping the Third Child. "You awake?"

"Maya?" she heard him reply from inside.

A moment later, the door opened, revealing Shinji Ikari, clad in the green hospital-issued pajamas.

"Hello, Shinji," she greeted him with a smile. "Can I come in?"

"Of course," he answered at once, standing aside to allow her to enter. "Uh, what brings you here?"

Maya arched an eyebrow. "Not happy to see me?" she asked.

He shook his head. "No, no, it's not that," he rushed to assure her. "I'm just surprised you're here. I thought you were still on leave until tomorrow."

"Technically, I am. I just threw on the uniform so I wouldn't have people challenging me every few seconds when I came here," Maya explained. "And as to why I came, I just wanted to see how you were doing. And bring you this." She held out the wrapped bento box.

Shinji blinked, then, realizing what it was, he eagerly grabbed it and took it over to wheeled table beside his bed. "Thank you," he said earnestly as he hastily opened it. "The food here is _terrible_."

"I've heard," Maya said wryly.

She waited patiently for a few minutes as Shinji devoured most of the bento's contents with uncharacteristic zeal. Idly, she glanced at the room's lone chair, a stainless steel construction with absolutely no padding, then decided to remain standing.

"So, how are you?" she asked once he'd started to slow down. "I heard you took a very hard hit in the last battle."

"Oh, I'm okay," Shinji answered between mouthfuls. "My whole front side felt really sensitive for a day or two after the battle. I guess because my synch ratio is higher than it used to be," he mused, opening and closing his fist experimentally. "But I feel fine now."

"That's good," Maya said. "Are they going to release you soon?"

"Tomorrow," he nodded. "Thank god."

"That bad, huh?"

"The ceiling is the worst part."

"What?"

"Uh, never mind," Shinji said. "So, how did your visit go?"

Maya sighed. "It was…pretty intense," she said, "but I'm glad I went. My dad and I managed to resolve a very old dispute. I just wish, well, that he wasn't so ill."

The conversation awkwardly moved to other, less important topics after that; Shinji was clearly keen on keeping her around for as long possible, probably as a result of his confinement in the medical ward, and he did his best to keep talking. However, with the mention of Maya's dying father hanging in the air, the atmosphere remained uncomfortable, and the brunette soon took her leave. Departing from the ward, she slipped out of the base as quickly as possible, before someone from Tech Division One could spot her and implore her to get back to work a day early.

Arriving back at her apartment, Maya changed into casual clothes and opened up her laptop.

During her whole "career" as Zatanna, Maya had made of point of trying not to mix magic and technology, feeling that only ill could come of it. Already disposed toward wanting to keep supernatural powers away from her precious science, she had seen the less-than-optimal outcome of her magical tinkering with the Twelfth Angel as proof that it was a bad idea.

Yet after visiting her father and burying the hatchet, she had a clearer perspective on the matter. Frankly, considering how vague her understanding of the Twelfth Angel had been, she was lucky that her spell had gone as well as it had. There was no good reason to believe that magic and technology were inherently incompatible.

Which wasn't to say that getting the two to play nice would be easy. Maya was very much venturing into uncharted waters by making the attempt; Luddite _Homo Magi_ were the rule, not the exception.

_So it's a good thing that I'm uniquely qualified to make something that uses them both,_ she decided, opening up a notepad program on her laptop.

* * *

In a darkened virtual room, which was protected by enough firewalls to make the security on the CIA's servers look flimsy, twelve holographic monoliths silently materialized, forming a ring in the center of the chamber.

"This special meeting of the SEELE Council is called to order," SEELE 01 announced formally.

"Yes, yes, just get on with it, Lorenz," SEELE 04 replied crabbily. "What was so important that you couldn't wait until the next regular meeting?"

Somehow, the fourth member of the shadowy cabal could _feel_ the force of their leader's glare, even though they were all concealed by their holographic avatars.

"As you know," SEELE 01 continued, "NERV recently engaged the Fourteenth Angel and destroyed it."

"We've all seen the reports," SEELE 11 chimed in. He was clearly no less annoyed than SEELE 04 about abruptly being summoned for the meeting, but he at least had enough tact not to say so. "The amount of damage to the city and the Evangelions was…extensive. Yet given the sheer power and ferocity of the Angel, there was little to find fault with in NERV's performance."

Not that they wouldn't find something to criticize when they next met with Ikari. By this point, they'd find something to nitpick about even if NERV repelled an Angel flawlessly, partially due to their never ending power struggle with the Commander of NERV, but also largely because of their very real dislike for Gendo Ikari, which had only grown as the war had progressed.

"Zatanna did not make an appearance during the battle," SEELE 01 pointed out.

Silence hung in the chamber for a few seconds, as the other members finally started to figure out what Keel had called the special session for.

"I imagine that's helped NERV's credibility," SEELE 12 finally ventured a remark to get the discussion moving again.

"Indeed," Keel agreed. "Many of the discontented rumblings about Project-E have fallen silent. However, there is no reason they can't start again if Zatanna defeats another Angel."

"With all due respect, Mr. Chairman, it's 3 AM where I am," SEELE 09 piped up. "Not a time for subtly and innuendos. What do you want from us?"

Keel paused a moment before answering, possibly, the other council members mused, simply for dramatic impact. "The boy has informed me he's ready to move against her," he said. "I can give him the order to strike at any time."

"And you're looking for us to sign off on it before you give him the word?" SEELE 05 asked suspiciously. "That's not like you. Do you know something we do not?"

"No," SEELE 01 said. "However, this organization has very few supernatural assets at its disposal now. It seemed prudent to seek the approval of this body before deploying the boy on a risky assignment."

The already tired and irritable members present felt themselves growing even more annoyed at this explanation. If Keel was telling the truth (never a safe assumption, but certainly possible) then he'd forced the meeting all for an exercise in ass-covering.

Unfortunately, complaining about it would hardly be a wise move, and the easiest way of ending the meeting was to go along with it.

"I call for a vote on the matter," SEELE 04 announced.

"Second," SEELE 09 added.

"All in favor?" SEELE 04 asked.

"Aye." The members said immediately.

"Very well," SEELE 01 said. "I shall send the boy out immediately."

* * *

"What do you think, Teekl?" Klarion Bleak asked as he stepped out into the cool night air. "Once we do this thing for Keel, will he release us from his service?"

The cat, which was perched upon his shoulder like a parrot, meowed loudly. Klarion sighed.

"Yes, you're probably right," he agreed with the feline, reaching the sidewalk, which he starting walking down with no destination in mind. "I really must do something to ensure that he releases me from his service."

The cat meowed again.

"Well, obviously I don't know what that is yet," Klarion snapped. "If I did, I wouldn't be working for Keel right now!"

Teekl hissed.

"Yes, yes, you're right. Sorry," Klarion said. "I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you, and in any case, tonight we need to focus on Zatanna. Speaking of which, where is she, anyway?"

He came to a halt, looking around with some confusion, then he crossed his arms and harrumphed softly. "It figures. I'm afraid to leave my apartment at night because I expect her to ambush me, but when I'm looking for a fight, she's nowhere to be found."

Teekl just stretched languidly, which experience had taught Klarion was the feline equivalent of an indifferent shrug.

Klarion smiled wickedly. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to get her attention, then."

* * *

Maya was still dutifully typing away at her laptop when she saw it through her window. A red flash of light that came and went so quickly that the brunette thought she might have just imagined it. Indeed, under normal circumstances, she probably would have just shrugged and gone back to what she was doing.

However, her circumstances had been anything but ordinary since she'd assumed the mantle of Zatanna, and if there was one thing Maya knew, it was a bad idea to ignore random flashes of light when you were potentially dealing with magic.

Closing her laptop, she walked over to the window and peered outside. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

Tokyo-3 was on fire.

Not all of it, of course, or even a lot of it. However, she could clearly see trails of smoke coming from multiple fires scattered all throughout the city. She counted half a dozen of them, and as she watched, there was another flash of crimson light, and another fire started.

"Klarion," she scowled. "Damn, and I have work tomorrow, too."

Well, there was nothing for it, she decided with a sigh.

"Emutsoc," she commanded, and instantly, her loafing-around-the-house clothes were replaced by her tuxedo, fishnet stockings, and new top hat. Sliding her window open, she couldn't help but grimace as she looked down. "I hate heights." She grumbled as she climbed through the window, sending herself plummeting toward the ground.

"Dniw yrrac em!" she shouted out.

Instantly, the air swirled around her, nearly rivaling a tornado in sheer force and speed, and yet somehow not knocking her hat off her head. Her descent slowed, then stopped entirely. A moment later, the enchanted winds started to propel her toward the nearest and most recently lit fire.

For some reason, Zatanna was actually surprised when she discovered that the burning building was a toy store, and when she saw Klarion walking out the front, carrying a brand new Xbox.

"Ah, hello there, Zatanna," he greeted her cheerfully as she hovered a short distance away from him, like they were friends who'd just happened to bump into one another. "Have you come to fight me?"

"I don't intend to waste time on decoys," she said shortly, noticing that his cat was once again missing.

Klarion laughed. "So, you figured it out, then?" he asked. "Well, if you want to face the real me, then you'll have to go down to the docks. Pier 13 to be exact."

"And what makes you think I'll just walk into such an obvious trap?" Zatanna demanded.

"Because if you don't, I'll just have to light the whole city on fire," Klarion replied with a sadistic smirk, gesturing toward the burning store behind him.

Scowling darkly, Zatanna raised her wand. "Yortsed," she hissed.

The Klarion duplicate, so incredibly lifelike a second ago, shattered, leaving nothing but pieces of dry clay in its wake.

She pointed her wand at a small water tower which sat atop a nearby building. "Esuod!" she commanded.

Instantly, the side of the water tower broke open, but instead of sending a massive deluge down onto the street below, a stream of water snaked out of the hole, streaming straight toward the burning store. The great gush of water extinguished the flames, then pulled back into the water tower, like a serpent returning to it lair.

"Riaper," she said, and the hole in the water tower instantly mended itself.

That done, it was time to set out to meet Klarion. Zatanna breathed a quick spell, and the enchanted winds keeping her aloft started to moved her through the air again, toward the city's docks.

"Pier 13," she grumbled to herself. "Does the brat not have one original bone in his body?" she wondered aloud.

Eventually, she came in for a gentle landing at the Tokyo-3 docks, which were dark, quiet, and exceedingly creepy.

"Thgil," she said, and the tip of her wand started to glow with a faint blue light.

Which Zatanna immediately almost put out. If anything, the weak illumination only made the whole place seem creepier and more threatening than it had a moment ago, casting long, menacing shadows everywhere.

However, she resisted the impulse, making herself look around the huge shipping containers, cranes, and all the other equipment that one might expect to find at a port. However, she saw no sign of the Witchboy, real or otherwise.

_Is it normal for the port to be totally empty like this at this time of night?_ Zatanna wondered as she wandered around, ready for any sign of impending attack. She knew next to nothing about the shipping industry, or anything nautical for that matter, but it seemed to her that a port didn't normally shut down completely at 5 o'clock.

She was jolted from her thoughts by a high pitched whistling sound from above her. Zatanna's head snapped to the side, and her eyes widened as she saw a ball of crimson fire streaking down toward her. With no time to cast a protective spell, the masked magician had no choice but to dive away from the attack, landing painfully on the ground as the attack hit the concrete next to her.

Quickly getting back to her feet, the princess of prestidigitation looked up to where the fireball had come from, spying the Witchboy standing atop a stack of shipping containers, holding a wooden staff.

That cat of his was standing next to him; she was finally facing the real one.

"Bleak," she said.

"Hello there, Zatanna," he greeted her with a wicked grin. "I'm afraid I'm here to kill you. Though you should know it pains me to destroy a woman with such lovely…natural attributes…" he said, casting an obvious glance at her stocking-clad legs.

The feline hissed, as though warning him to get on with it.

"Ah, yes," Klarion said, recovering quickly. "As I said, I regret having to destroy you, but I have no choice."

He held his hand out, palm up, and another ball of magical flame appeared above it. The magic flames illuminated most of the pyramid of shipping containers, revealing the half dozen undead standing on it.

"Grundies," Klarion said as he hurled the ball of fire at Zatanna. "Kill."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** When I first started writing this chapter, I didn't set out to make the battle against the Fourteenth Angel so long. It just sort of happened. I realize there's actually not a whole lot of Maya in this chapter, considering that this is her story. But even when she's not there, things are happening in very different ways than they would've if she'd never become Zatanna.

Anyway, next chapter: the final between Zatanna and Klarion the Witchboy.

As always, thanks to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	13. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Twelve:** The Witch Boy

"Grundies," Klarion said as he hurled a ball of fire at Zatanna. "Kill."

The undead men released loud, gurgling growls and leapt off the pyramid of shipping containers where the Witch Boy was perched, all of them displaying an unsurprising disregard for their own safety.

With death coming at her from seemingly every direction, the masked magician resorted to the only thing she knew would get her out of the way in time, even though she hated doing it.

"Tropelet!" she shouted.

There was a sound like a gusting wind as Zatanna disappeared, pulling a good deal of air with her as she went. The grundies' partially decayed faces twisted into expressions of surprise, and they landed hard on the ground. Brittle bones snapped, but the dead uttered no cries of pain. The magic which had raised them from their graves and reanimated them quickly began to knit their broken limbs back together, getting them back into usable condition.

For his own part, Klarion grit his teeth and managed to redirect his fireball harmlessly into the air, lest he end up incinerating his own minions.

Then, there was silence.

"Where is she?" the Witch Boy growled, his gaze darting about.

The cat perched on his shoulder had no answer for him, and Klarion quickly grew edgy, expecting Zatanna to appear right behind him and finish him before he could respond. He was on the verge of playing the ace he had tucked up his sleeve right then and there.

Then there was a loud _pop_, and Zatanna reappeared about fifteen or twenty meters away from her original position. She staggered for a few drunken steps, and her top hat was badly askew.

"God, I _hate_ teleporting," she grumbled to herself as she straightened up and pushed her hat back into place.

Teekl looked at Klarion and meowed loudly, as if to say, "You were worried about _her_?"

A large drop of sweat ran down the back of the Witch Boy's head.

"Grundies, get her!" he barked.

The group of undead released groans that were probably as close as their decayed vocal cords could get to war cries, weary and fierce at the same time. Their milky gazes promised the magician death and pain as they moved toward her with surprising speed.

Zatanna, however, was unafraid.

"Reniatnoc hsurc daed nam!" she shouted, waving her wand.

One of the great metal boxes in the tall pyramid of shipping containers Klarion stood upon practically exploded out of its place, flying into the air and then coming down upon one of the grundies. The sound of the undead minion's brittle bones snapping like twigs was inaudible over the thunderous bang of the container hitting the ground with enough force to crack the pavement.

Of course, even _that_ noise seemed soft in comparison to the cacophony that several dozen of the huge shipping containers made as they tumbled down as a result of the masked magician having pulled one from the bottom of the stack.

"Damn you, Zatanna!" Klarion screamed as he and his cat fell with it, mere moments before disappearing into the darkness.

Leaving Zatanna all alone with the remaining grundies.

"You couldn't have been standing close enough together for me to kill you all at once, could you?" she asked them with some annoyance as they slowly approached her, far more careful now than they'd been before.

The zombie warriors just growled wordlessly at her in response.

Zatanna scowled and raised her wand. "Come on, then," she said softly. "You're not getting any younger, you know."

"_Raaugh!_" one of the grundies screamed, appearing for all the world to be genuinely angered by the mild barb.

It charged toward the princess of prestidigitation, a great bag of bones, loose sagging flesh, and pale sallow skin held together by seemingly nothing but pure bloodlust. Even in its partially withered state, the grundy was far larger than the petite magician.

"Erif!" Zatanna shouted.

Red and orange flames erupted from the tip of her wand, washing over the undead man like a deadly wave. Instantly, the grundie's pale skin began to blacken and release the horrible smell of roasting flesh, as his already ragged clothes were reduced to ashes.

The assault would have made a living man collapse to the ground in agony within seconds, but the grundy felt no pain. It continued to run forward, ignoring the loss of its skin and the burning of the fat and muscle tissue beneath.

Realizing her error, but not seeing any way to correct her mistake, Zatanna yelled, "Erom!" and the fire erupting from her wand grew in intensity, changing to a bright yellow color.

Zatanna watched with horrified fascination as the dead man continued to run through the inferno, layers of flesh rapidly burning off its body until the fire revealed bone, which quickly started to turn black under the intense heat. In the seconds it took the grundy to get within striking distance of her, it was reduced to little more than a charcoal colored skeleton, with only the bare minimum of flesh holding it together and keeping it moving. A cry escaped the magician as it raised its bony arms to strike her; she knew she was about to die.

Then, what remained of the grundy abruptly collapsed, its char broiled bones crumpling to dust as they hit the ground.

"Whew," the masked magician heaved a sigh of relief as she cut off the stream of fire shooting forth from her wand. The heat and her own fear had caused her to break out into a sweat, and with the fire removed she now felt almost chilly, despite the warmth of the night.

Then one of the remaining grundies grabbed her from behind, wrapping its cold arms around her, and Zatanna screamed, realizing that she had taken her attention off the other four undead men for much too long.

"Get off me!" she screamed, panicking. "Get off!"

The grundy just growled wordlessly and tightened its hold on her. Zatanna struggled for all she was worth, but she wasn't a large or particularly strong woman. The dead man was able to hold onto her with little difficulty.

Another grundy approached them, a knife clutched in its cold, dead hand. The masked magician felt her terror increase.

"Get off me! Let go!" she screamed, redoubling her struggles.

The approaching grundy raised its knife, and the blade glinted with reflected moonlight.

Something in the magician's brain finally clicked. "Teg ffo em!" she cried.

The grundy holding onto her was instantly thrown off, knocked backwards several feet by an invisible force. Zatanna wasted no time in pointing her wand at the knife wielding grundy.

"Edalb semoceb ekans!" she yelled.

Instantly, the knife in the grundy's hand transformed into a long, writhing snake, which wasted no time in biting the undead man. The grundy jumped, though he seemed more surprised than afraid. Certainly, he showed no indication of being in pain.

"Ekans worg!" Zatanna commanded.

The snake biting the grundy quickly started to increase in size, swelling impossibly until it was easily ten meters in length. The undead man actually managed to look alarmed as the massive serpent coiled its body around it and started to squeeze. In seconds, the snake had completely crushed him beyond the point where even Klarion's enchantment could restore the undead man.

"Three down, three to go," she muttered to herself after making the snake disappear. She quickly turned her attention to the remaining grundies, lest she be caught by surprise again.

The one that she'd magically catapulted off of herself was trying to sneak up on her again, and she wasn't about to have that.

"Sedalb raeppa dna tuc eht daednu ot seceip!" she yelled.

A half dozen katana materialized out of thin air, floating above the ground. The grundy stared at them in befuddlement for a second, not sure what to do about them.

Then they struck, as quick and as deadly as they would've been if they'd each been in the hands of a master swordsman, severing the grundy's head and all four of its limbs neatly from its body.

The arms and legs squirmed about on the ground, and the jaw's of the head snapped open and closed several times, but the dead man was rendered completely helpless by the attack. Also, the scene wasn't quite as grisly as Zatanna had feared; the grundy's heart no longer pumped, which meant a distinct lack of blood.

"Who else wants some?" the magician asked the remaining two grundies, actually starting to feel confident.

Naturally, the universe immediately saw fit to punish anything that even _resembled_ hubris in her.

The pile of fallen shipping containers exploded, several of them flying into the air. One came within a handful of meters of the magician, breaking concrete and then bouncing away, spinning end over end as it flew through the night.

"_ZATANNA!_" Klarion roared as he soared upwards, a halo of crimson flames burning around him, combining with the expression of pure fury on his face to make him look nothing short of demonic.

Amazingly, Teekl was still perched on his shoulder, appearing none the worse for the wear.

"I should've known it was too much to hope for that those metal things would keep you down for very long," Zatanna observed with feigned nonchalance, struggling not to show how intimidated she was by the display.

"Grundies, see if you can't keep her busy for a few seconds," Klarion directed, just before he sent a _barrage_ of crimson fireballs at her.

"Daednu otni htap fo erif!" Zatanna barked.

The remaining two grundies, both of which had been lunging at her, were picked up into the air and thrown at the firestorm Klarion had directed at her. Despite the resistance to flame that the other grundy had shown, the Witch Boy's hellfire burned them to cinders almost instantly.

Unfortunately, they had only managed to block a tiny portion of Klarion's assault, and Zatanna wasn't too keen on seeing if she could stop that much raw power with a hastily woven spell.

She turned on her heel and ran as fast as her legs would take her, gritting her teeth as she heard the fireballs impacting the ground behind her and felt the heat on her back. She could hear Klarion chanting an incantation in a language she didn't understand, but she didn't look back.

_Oh, he's cooking up something nasty,_ she thought with more than a touch of dread.

"Come, Horigal, come!" Klarion switched back to Japanese as he finished his spell.

The rain of fire ceased at almost the very same moment, and Zatanna came to a stop, turning just in time to be blinded by the pulse of light Klarion's body was emitting.

"What the hell is he doing?" she wondered aloud, shielding her eyes.

The light eventually dimmed, allowing Zatanna to see just what Klarion had done, and the masked magician gasped.

The Witch Boy and his cat had fused to become one creature. One horrifying creature with a body covered in tabby fur, eight lithe limbs all ending in hands with wicked claws, and two faces, the feline one perched where the human's forehead should've been.

"_I didn't want to do this_," the creature's human face spoke, while the feline face hissed menacingly, "_but you left me no choice. Now, die!_"

He charged toward her with incredible, uncanny speed. The fusion creature's movements struck the magician as incredibly _wrong_ on some primal level, but there was no denying the Horigal's gracefulness.

"Yob dna tac tilps!" she yelled, waving her wand.

Nothing happened. Clearly, whatever spell Klarion had cast to turn himself and his cat into the monstrosity before her, it had been an order of magnitude more complex and powerful than the magic he'd used before. There was no way she could hope to come up with an effective counter spell on the fly.

"Crap," she hissed, turning on her heel and breaking out into a run.

It didn't take the Horigal long to catch up with her. Zatanna tried to evade the creature, zigzagging wildly, but it came at her from an angle she hadn't even expected it from, tackling her to the ground and driving the wind from her lungs.

Hissing malevolently, the chimerical beast raised four clawed hands, intent on slitting her throat.

"Tropelet!" she gasped out.

Zatanna vanished, causing the Horigal to fall to ground. She reappeared several moments later, several yards behind the monster that had once been a human and a cat.

The Horigal's ears or sense of smell, or both, must have been extremely keen, because he knew where she was the second she materialized. With a growl, he burst up from the ground and started sprinting toward her.

Maybe it was because of the adrenaline coursing through her system, or perhaps she was simply becoming somewhat inured to the effects of teleportation. Regardless of the reason, she regained her bearings more quickly than usual.

"Ylf!" she barked, just an instant before he got within reach of her.

Zatanna was hurled backwards into the air, as if flicked by the invisible fingers of a god, just an instant before the Horigal could get in a probably lethal swipe. She let out a cry as she sailed through the air, finally landing on top of the pile of fallen storage containers.

Barely fazed by its prey's quick escape, the Horigal quickly started sprinting toward her new location. Fortunately, it only took Zatanna a moment to recover this time.

"Nuts mih!" she shouted.

A blast of green energy burst forth from the tip of her wand, striking the Horigal dead on in the chest. The beast staggered back a step, then shook its head, throwing off the effects of the attack. It quickly resumed running toward her at top speed.

Zatanna grimaced; clearly, the Horigal wasn't just damned hard to separate into its individual parts without knowing exactly how, but it was obviously highly resistant to other spells, too.

The magician's mind quickly went into overdrive as she tried to figure out what to do now. She was tempted, extremely tempted, to retreat, to simply teleport herself back to her apartment and call it a night.

She quickly rejected the idea, though. She had no idea what the Horigal would do if it had no target to focus on, and given Klarion's reluctance to turn himself and his cat into the combined being, there was a very good chance it might wander around the city, killing whoever was unlucky enough to cross paths with it.

Besides, so long as the Witch Boy was allowed to run around free, he was a danger to her. And to Shinji.

Retreat wasn't an option.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quite sure what _else_ she could do.

"_Raugh!_" the Horigal roared as it leapt toward her.  
"Reniatnoc revoh!" she shouted, and the shipping container she stood upon headed upwards into the air. The arc of Horigal's jump was now off, and it slammed face first into the container, hissing and growling angrily as it bounced off the metal and landed gracefully on the ground. "Rehto sreniatnoc hsurc eht retnom!"

Other shipping containers rose off the ground, then barreled through the air toward the Horigal, moving at the speed of a freight train going full tilt. The partially feline monster moved with incredible quickness, dodging the first few improvised missiles, but Zatanna didn't see how it could keep that up.

She didn't want to kill Klarion, she truly didn't, but she didn't see how she could hope to incapacitate the Horigal when it shrugged off her stunning spell. If she was very lucky, the beast would prove as resistant to physical assaults as magical ones, and being hit by several tons of metal would only knock it out.

If not…she had already done some bad things in her efforts to save the world from NERV and SEELE. May God have mercy on her soul.

As it turned out, however, it was far too soon for the masked magician to contemplate the morality of ending Klarion Bleak's life.

After one particularly close near miss from a flying shipping container, the Horigal scampered up the side of the thing, quickly reaching the top of it. From there it jumped onto another container, this one closer to Zatanna. Running across the top of it with incredible speed, the half-human beast leaped one final time, finally making it onto the masked magician's perch.

Zatanna was so stunned by the Horigal's seemingly impossible feat that she could only stand and stare at it as it rushed toward her.

It lashed out, its claws raking against her stomach, leaving long tears across her white shirt and drawing blood. The masked magician let out a cry of pain, and gravity instantly reclaimed its hold on the shipping container they stood upon.

That was what saved her, because the Horigal undoubtedly would've sliced her into ribbons if its perch hadn't suddenly lurched violently beneath its feet. The two were thrown in opposite directions, both landing in a heap several meters away from each other.

Zatanna groaned as she sat up and reclaimed her top hat from the ground, putting it back on her head.

_Assuming I survive tonight, I'm going to wake up tomorrow morning __**wishing**__ that I had died,_ she thought dourly.

Then she heard a hiss and turned her head to see the Horigal already leaping toward her again, claws extended and still dripping crimson.

"Gib thgil!" she shouted, squeezing her eyes shut.

Light _erupted_ the tip of her wand, and even through her eyelids, Zatanna could still tell it was there; it was like she'd turned her face in the direction of the noonday sun. The Horigal cried out in pain and outrage as it was momentarily blinded by the unexpected flare of radiance.

After waiting for a few seconds, Zatanna dared to open her eyes. Spots danced before her vision, but she was still a good deal better off than the Horigal, which was rubbing at its eyes and moaning in obvious pain.

"Sniahc raeppa dna dnib eht retsnom!" she commanded, waving her wand.

A long chain materialized out of thin air near the Horigal, and, moving in a way that immediately called to mind a snake, the metal links made their way to the half-human beast, quickly wrapping around it and pinning its many limbs to its sides.

The Horigal roared with outrage. Zatanna sighed and sagged with relief.

"Finally," she muttered to herself, even though she knew she wasn't quite done yet.

She had to get herself and the Horigal away from the docks, and quickly. The police were sure to arrive soon, even with all the chaos that Klarion had spawned in Tokyo-3 that night diverting their attention.

"But first, how the hell do I separate them?" she wondered aloud, looking at the Horigal. She wasn't keen on the idea of trying to keep the wild beast prisoner for any extended period of time.

_"You don't!"_ the beast snarled, its deep voice nothing short of demonic.

With a mighty roar, all of the Horigal's limbs strained at once, and the chain binding the creature practically exploded as several of the links broke all at once. The half-feline chimera jumped to its feet and lunged at Zatanna.

Fortunately, it missed by a wide margin. Obviously, its eyesight was still somewhat impaired.

Zatanna didn't intend to wait for its vision to improve. Cursing under her breath, she ran off into the darkness of the port, zipping between dark shapes that, for all she knew, could've been yet more shipping containers, pieces of heavy equipment, or small buildings. The flare of light she'd generated had pretty much ruined her night vision for the next several minutes.

She didn't have a plan by this point, beyond putting some distance between her and foe. She needed some time in order to come up with something.

The slashes that the Horigal had left on her front hurt and throbbed every time she took a step, and she eventually slowed to a stop next to a large crane, pressing her hand over the wound. When she moved it, her palm came away wet and sticky. Not a good sign, and she'd be willing to bet that the Horigal could easily follow the scent of blood in the dark.

"Laeh em," she muttered, and the gashes on her stomach quickly vanished, taking the pain with them.

Now if only she'd thought to do that about five minutes ago…

_Focus,_ she commanded herself, knowing that she had, at best, minutes to think. _I need to separate Klarion and that damned cat, or I'll never win. How do I do that without knowing the proper counter spell?_

She managed to calm her scattered thoughts long enough to remember a few relevant facts about cracking a hostile _Homo Magi's_ spells. Often, it was a lot like finding a way past mundane security, both physical and virtual.

Frequently, all you needed was the right incantation, like how a password would get you through security on most people's personal computers. Other times, it was just a matter of finding the weak point, like a flaw in the armor. Sometimes, the protection only worked one way, like how secure buildings were sometimes designed to keep unauthorized people out but not in.

_One way…_

An insane plan quickly took shape inside her mind.

And not a second too soon, either, because Zatanna spied two glowing yellow eyes nearby at the very same moment.

_"I smell blood!"_ the Horigal said in its horrible, inhuman voice.

The next thing she knew, the beast was on her, one of its many hands wrapped around her throat. Zatanna squeezed her eyes shut again, expecting the Horigal to snap her neck and end her right there.

Instead, he picked her up and threw her. Zatanna landed several meters away from him, her body screaming with pain from the harsh and unexpected landing, but still alive.

"Slamina emoc," she muttered as she slowly, carefully picked herself up.

Nothing happened.

The Horigal rushed toward her, lashing out at her. Zatanna did her best to dodge, but the beast was incredibly fast, and its numerous arms were difficult to dodge. Its claws raked against her right arm, further shredding her costume and drawing blood from her once again. The masked magician let out a cry of pain.

_"Out of tricks?"_ the Horigal taunted her.

Zatanna wasn't planning on answering the question, but even if she had been, she wouldn't have gotten the chance. The Horigal lashed out again with its many arms, this time leaving a trio of bloody gashes across her left thigh. Zatanna yelped again.

_Is it trying to kill me with a thousand cuts?_ The masked magician wondered, paradoxically glad to be still alive while annoyed that the monster was choosing to make this as long and as painful an affair as possible.

It struck again, and this time she managed to dodge all its claws by taking several quick steps backward.

_"Hold still,"_ the Horigal commanded, though it sounded amused.

It was that note of merriment in the thing's voice that finally made it click inside Zatanna's mind. The Horigal wasn't drawing things out to make her demise as slow and as painful as possible; it was toying with its prey, the exact same way a cat would play with a mouse before finishing it off.

The masked magician decided to play along, reluctantly concluding that it was the best way to buy time and remain in more or less the same location until she could execute her plan.

So she did her best to dodge and weave out of the way of the Horigal's many claws. It was impossible task; the half-feline beast was much too agile and fast for a mere human to avoid, but she knew that giving it all her effort made her entertaining prey. The Horigal landed numerous blows, leaving Zatanna was several painful but superficial cuts, and the magician made a point of crying out for every one of them, hoping to amuse her foe.

Yet despite her efforts to be as entertaining as possible, the Horigal still tired of tormenting her before Zatanna was quite ready to execute her plan. With a loud snarl, the monster grabbed her with several of its hands, slamming her against the side of a silent forklift with enough force to drive the wind from her lungs.

_"Die,"_ it hissed.

"Wait," Zatanna gasped out.

The beast looked amused, no doubt assuming that it was a plea for mercy. _"Why?"_

A small squeak from behind them saved Zatanna from having to answer. A frown forming on its human face, the Horigal turned, and all four of its eyes widened at what it saw.

Dozens upon dozens of rats and mice had gathered behind it and were waiting patiently, as though summoned by the Pied Piper himself. A stray dog was also among the group of animals, as well as an extremely mangy looking old cat, but the rodents were by far the majority of the supernatural gathering.

_Well, here goes everything,_ Zatanna thought, inhaling deeply.

"Tar nioj htiw retsnom!" she shouted.

A single rat scurried forward and leapt at the Horigal in a move that could best be described as suicidal. On reflex, the monster moved to smack it out of the air with one of its free hands, but it never got the chance. Before it could connect, the rat's body transformed into a bolt of white light, which struck the Horigal right in the center of its torso.

Caught by surprise, the chimerical beast staggered back a step, releasing its hold on Zatanna. With a roar, it threw its head back as its body changed. New limbs, these covered in dark gray fur and ending in clawed pink hands, burst forth from its sides, and a long, thin tail like that of a rat sprouted from its hindquarters.

_It worked!_ The magician thought.

Chuffing with laughter, the monster turned to face Zatanna again. _"I'm more powerful now,"_ it boasted.

Zatanna didn't bother to explain to the Horigal just why it was done for. "Lla slamina nioj htiw retsnom!" she commanded, waving her wand.

The entire horde of creatures ran toward the Horigal, a stampede of rodents and strays. They all leaped at the Horigal as they drew near to the beast, each changing into a beam of light just as that first rat had.

For a split second, the Horigal's human face twisted into an expression of pure horror, and Zatanna knew it realized what was about to happen to it.

Then the seemingly countless spears of light impacted it, and the monster stumbled backwards, roaring again, not in triumph this time but in pain. Turning its head to look at Zatanna even as it flesh writhed beneath its skin and fur, the Horigal took an unsteady step toward her, clearly hoping to kill her before what she'd done could fully take effect.

It didn't even come close.

The Horigal quickly began to grow in size, as limbs that looked like they belong to various different animals sprouted up from seemingly everywhere on its body, including from other limbs. Where no limbs formed, mouths opened instead, some of them tiny and bearing big buck teeth, others much larger in the shape of dogs' or cats' jaws. In seconds, the once lethally quick and graceful beast became an unwieldy mass confused, uncoordinated extremities.

Nor was the process even close to complete. Eyes started to form everywhere on the beast, from the palms of its many hands to any free space on its torso. Several of the delicate organs scraped against the ground as the monstrosity flopped about, evicting howls from its numerous mouths.

And still it went on. Ears and noses quickly joined the grotesque mishmash of body parts, which was steadily increasing in mass as the seconds dragged out, and it wasn't long before they were followed by tails. Soon, even various animal torsos were spawning from the ends of the Horigal's limbs, and the new torsos gave rise to yet more body parts.

"Separate!" Zatanna screamed at it. "Separate now! There's no way you'll get this under control, so _separate while you still can!_"

The Horigal's many mouths opened, releasing a chorus of animal screams. Red light shot of its countless eyes, quickly becoming almost blinding.

Then the Horigal broke into pieces, or at least, that was what it looked like at first. In reality, it had reverted back to the dozens and dozens of creatures which had composed it. The rodents and other stray animals, abruptly freed of magical compulsion, quickly turned tail and fled the area, a veritable exodus of urban wildlife.

All of them made a point of giving Zatanna a wide berth as they took off.

When the tide of scraggly fur had finally receded, all that was left was Klarion and his cat Teekl. Both boy and feline were laying on the cold ground, panting slowly. The Witch Boy gripped his staff loosely, but he didn't even try to raise it against Zatanna as she approached. He was completely drained, and he wasn't going to pretend otherwise.

"Please," Klarion spoke, barely able to muster more than a whisper, "mercy."

Zatanna looked coldly down at the young boy, remembering all too clearly the moments where he'd shown himself to be a sadistic brat. A sadistic brat who was a threat to people she cared about.

She wouldn't kill him. Even in her darkest and most vengeful moment, Zatanna didn't possess the malice necessary to end a human life, not in a situation like this. Yet she _was_ oh so tempted to wipe his mind, just like she'd wiped Gendo Ikari's. She wanted to reduce Klarion Bleak to a tabula rasa with no knowledge of how to use his innate magical abilities, not just because she hoped that given a clean slate, he might become a better person, but also because she wanted to punish the horrible, stupid child.

_No,_ she finally thought, ultimately deciding that her ability to wipe people's memories was too great and too terrible a power to use so freely. Even if it didn't actually end a life, wiping a mind clean _did_ still destroy who that person had been. Like killing, she knew it was something she could only do when she had no other choice.

"I'm not going to murder you," Zatanna said softly, and Klarion's relief was plain to see. "But you don't get to just run around free anymore. Frankly, I don't trust you to keep to any oath to not cause more trouble around here."

Klarion winced, but the masked magician suspected he wouldn't have protested, even if he'd had the energy to argue with her. Probably he wouldn't have trusted him, either.

"So you're going to get something that's _long_ overdue," Zatanna proclaimed. "A time out."

The blank look on the Witch Boy's face made it obvious that he was unfamiliar with the concept. Somehow, Zatanna wasn't surprised.

The masked magician removed her new hat, thankful that her father had decided to bequeath it to her; she never would've been able to do this with her old one. Waving her wand over it like a common trickster getting ready to pull a rabbit from it, she spoke her next incantation slowly and carefully.

"Emityalp si revo. Nosirpmi eht yob hctiw dna sih tac ni ym tah."

Klarion let out a gasp as his body was abruptly changed into smoke, along with the body of his cat. The smoke quickly moved into Zatanna's upturned top hat, flowing into it like a waterspout. In only a few seconds, all the smoke had vanished into her hat.

"Now you two be good and think about what you've done," Zatanna said as she placed the hat back on her head.

She would let them go, she thought as she healed her plethora of minor wounds and repaired her costume with a couple of quick spells. She wouldn't hold them prisoner in her hat forever; she would free them.

Eventually.

Before she could give the matter any further thought, she saw flashing red lights in the distance, accompanied by the sound of sirens. Clearly, the police were finally coming to investigate all the loud noises that had recently come from the port.

She had wanted to use her magic to clean up some of the mess she and Klarion had created, but clearly she didn't have the time for that. Sighing, she decided that she needed to teleport one more time that night.

"Ekat em emoh," she said, and disappeared.

* * *

The virtual meeting chamber of SEELE was dark and somber, which was no surprise to any of the cabal's members. The meeting chamber was _always_ dark and somber. The members of the shadowy council could not be expected to play chess with all of humanity while surrounded by soothing pastels, after all.

However, the place seemed particularly grim that day, even though it looked exactly the same as it always had. Chairman Keel was about to make an announcement to the rest of them, but the other members of SEELE all had their own spies and knew what he was going to say.

"It has been 48 hours since Bleak last reported in," Keel said, hiding behind the holographic avatar of SEELE-01, as usual. "Considering the mission I gave him before that, we have little choice but to assume that Zatanna has neutralized him."

Even though none of the other SEELE members were surprised by this news, they all knew that they had to feign that reaction for the sake of appearances. Silence fell in the chamber for several seconds.

"If Bleak has been removed from the equation, then it would appear that we must send our other supernatural agent into Tokyo-3," SEELE-08 said.

"I still doubt that man's loyalties," SEELE-06 said dubiously.

"We know _exactly_ where his loyalties lie," SEELE-02 countered, "and they are not with us. However, understanding his motivations does give us the ability to control him."

"Still…" SEELE-06 said, obviously not liking the idea at all.

"There is a woman in Tokyo-3 who was able to waltz right past all of Ikari's defenses and alter him somehow," SEELE-02 pointed out flatly. "Not only does she have the power to meddle with the Scenario, she apparently has some sort of motive to do so as well. As long as she is alive and free to act, the entire plan is in great danger. Ignoring her is not an option, and we only have one agent left who is capable of dealing with such a threat."

There was a brief pause.

"The matter must be put to a vote," Keel said. "Who is in favor of sending our last supernatural agent to Tokyo-3 to deal with Zatanna?"

One by one, the members of the cabal cast their votes, and though SEELE-06 remained reluctant, the decision was unanimous.

"Very well," Keel said. "I will contact Felix Faust immediately."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I figured that Klarion deserved a big send off, since he'd been the villain of this story for so long. I hope I did the little brat justice.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers, and thanks to my beta reader as well.


	14. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Neon Genesis Evangelion is the creation of Anno and Gainax. I don't own it, make no claims to it, and am making no profit from this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics or anything associated with it and am making no profit off this fan fiction. No infringement of copyright is intended. In other words, please don't sue.

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen:** Whitewash

Studying the battlefield closely, Shinji Ikari carefully considered all his options. A mistake at this juncture could be fatal, but inaction simply wasn't feasible. His natural inclination in such situations was to play it safe, but painful experience had taught him that his opponent viewed caution as a sign of weakness.

His jaw set, Shinji made his move.

"Check," he announced as he placed his knight within striking range of his father's king.

The Commander of NERV didn't even blink at the move, much to the Third Child's disappointment. Instead, he casually reached out and took Shinji's knight with his bishop. Despite how carefully the EVA pilot had surveyed the board beforehand, he hadn't realized that he'd be putting his knight right into harm's way with that move.

The game continued for several more turns, but Shinji was now completely on the defensive and never came close to seizing the initiative again. The Third Child was merely delaying the inevitable, and he knew it.

"Checkmate," Gendo said eventually.

Shinji didn't even bother studying the board to make sure that there were really no escape routes, he just tipped his king over with a quick swat of his hand.

"You win again," he said.

"Yes, but it is taking me longer and longer to do so," Gendo replied. "Don't feel bad, Shinji. I've had a lot more practice than you have."

"At chess?" the Third Child asked, a little surprised. He didn't think his father's schedule left much time for board games.

"At being paranoid," the Commander answered, looking vaguely amused.

"Being paranoid?" Shinji echoed, blinking in surprise.

"Indeed," Gendo nodded. "Tell me, do you know who Bobby Fischer is?"

Shinji frowned slightly at the non sequitur but answered anyway. "Uh…the name sounds familiar," was all the Third Child could honestly say.

"Fischer was arguably the greatest chess player who ever lived, attaining the rank of grandmaster at only 15," Gendo said. "However, later in life he began to embrace anti-Semitic conspiracy theories."

"Conspiracy theories?"

Gendo shrugged. "Fairly standard 'the Jews secretly control everything' crackpot nonsense from what I understand," he said. "At its core, chess is a game about trying to discern all the ways in which your opponent can get you. It can be a very useful and important skill, but it doesn't pay to embrace it too closely, lest it start seeping into all your thinking. The people who have the luxury of setting it aside for a while and enjoying the sunshine every now and then would be wise to do so."

The hint was less than subtle, and Shinji knew that they wouldn't be having another game that day.

"When do you think you'll be able to step outside and enjoy the sunshine, Father?" he asked.

"Hopefully soon," Gendo answered as they gathered up the chess pieces to put them away. "Don't worry about me, though. I've endured this long. I can endure a bit longer still."

Shinji nodded, knowing that there was really nothing to say to that, but still, he worried.

They finished packing away the chessmen for next time, and the Third Child rose, wincing slightly as his clothes brushed against his skin in the wrong way.

"Still feeling sensitive?" Gendo asked.

"Yeah. It's definitely getting better, though," Shinji said sheepishly.

Unlike pain, injuries usually didn't transfer from the Evangelion to the pilot. However, Shinji's sync ratio had apparently been fairly high when he'd put Unit One between NERV headquarters and the Fourteenth Angel's devastating attack. The pain had been utterly incredible, and his skin had been _ridiculously _sensitive for a few days. Even now, he was still moving gingerly.

"This too shall pass," Gendo said, and Shinji didn't need to ask to know that he was quoting someone or some written work.

The two of them walked across the Commander's huge office, heading for the door.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask," Shinji said, "what ever happened to Klarion? I haven't seen him at school or the base lately. It's like he just disappeared. There are rumors saying he left the city."

"Those rumors are correct, Shinji," Gendo answered. "Pilot Bleak abruptly left Tokyo-3 several days ago. He is no longer a member of NERV."

Shinji blinked. "What happened?"

Gendo shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "No ever truly expected Bleak to pilot an Evangelion, least of all in actual combat. The Human Instrumentality Committee forced him upon us for reasons of their own, which they never bothered to share with me. They decided to recall him for similar reasons."

"I see," Shinji said, then he frowned. "Or, I guess, I don't see."

"Were you and Klarion friends?" Gendo asked.

"No," Shinji said. "We weren't close."

So far as he knew, nobody at Tokyo-3 Junior High or NERV Central had been close to Klarion. He just tended to creep people out too much and generally kept to himself.

"Then I wouldn't worry about it," Gendo said. "The Committee probably sent Bleak home, or put him somewhere else. In any case, I'm sure the old men will come up with some new nuisance to inflict upon on us soon."

* * *

Walking into the small holographic meeting room, Felix Faust looked absurdly out of place. Unlike the large chambers where the full SEELE council met, the room was tiny, barely large enough for two men to stand in, but it was clearly a modern space filled with high technology.

Faust, by contrast, looked as though he could've walked straight out of the past. The flowing blue clothes he wore were the same type of thing that desert dwellers had been donning for centuries to protect them from the blazing sun, and if he had a cell phone or any other accouterment of a member of a high tech society on him, he had it well hidden.

He might've looked almost comical in such a setting if not for the air of quiet menace about him, which ensured that nothing about him could ever be even the slightest bit funny.

The machines in the room came to life as he entered, and soon Faust found himself in the company of a holographic Chairman Keel, his appearance utterly indistinguishable from the real one.

"You called for me, Chairman?" Faust asked in a smooth, oily tone.

"Yes," Keel replied gruffly. "Klarion Bleak recently went MIA, as you may already be aware of."

"I might have heard about that," Faust nodded, with just the tiniest smug grin.

He quite enjoyed acting the part of the all-knowing, all-seeing mystic, especially with Keel; it annoyed the man, though he was too experienced an operator to ever snap or let it be too obvious. Faust sometimes acted like he knew things he didn't, in fact, just because it irritated Keel.

In this case, however, he truly had known that Klarion had gone silent. Faust always tried to gain as much knowledge as possible. He liked to know things. He liked to know things very much.

"Yes," Keel said, bringing the man's attention back to the conversation. "The situation remains unchanged from what it was when the council first sent Bleak. There is a magic user in Tokyo-3, and we have strong reasons to believe that she compromised Commander Ikari in some way."

_Magic user,_ Faust thought, resisting the urge to sneer. The term just sounded so cold and sterile; it utterly failed to capture the wonder and mystery that came with commanding ancient, arcane forces.

"And now that the boy has failed, you want me to step in and remedy the situation?" Faust said. It wasn't really a question.

"Exactly," Keel answered anyway. "Your mission is to travel to Tokyo-3, find out who this woman is, what exactly she's done and why she did it…and to neutralize her, of course."  
"Of course," Faust agreed.

"For this mission, the council is providing you with all the intelligence that Bleak gathered, scant though it may be, along with credentials that should get you significant access into NERV," Keel continued. "I'm afraid you'll have to wear a suit."

Faust grimaced. He hated neckties. "I understand."

"Also, the events unfolding in Tokyo-3 are of great interest to the council," Keel added. "You are _not_, under any circumstances, to apply indiscriminate force to solve this problem. Precision is required. Do I make myself clear?"

"As crystal," Faust said, his lips pressing into a thin line, at the implication that he had no finesse. Honestly, Keel seemed to think he was inclined to simply turn the entire city's population to stone. "I assume I'll be compensated for this?"

"If you succeed in your mission, I will see to it that you receive several arcane tomes which are currently in the council's possession," Keel grumbled.

"Thank you," Faust said. "If that's all, I will go to prepare for the journey."

"One more thing," Keel said. "The council is aware that we are not the only…entity you answer to, Faust. We have accepted that, if only because of the dearth of mystic operatives at our disposal. However, the fate of NERV Central and its actions are of paramount importance to SEELE. You will work only on this mission while at Tokyo-3, Faust. If we discover that you're serving other masters while you're there, you will not receive ancient tomes from us. Your compensation will be quite…different. I trust you take my meaning."

"I do," Faust said.

"Good," Keel said.

Without another word, the visage of the man in the visor vanished.

Felix Faust didn't swear. He didn't say what he really thought of Lorenz Keel and his threats. He didn't make a vow to kill the old cyborg first.

He wasn't foolish enough to think that he wasn't still being watched. The whole damn room was filled with cameras to capture a person's image during a holographic conference. Assuming that they were now all off would've been the height of stupidity.

Still, the sorcerer's fist clenched.

* * *

"Well, Shinji, I have to say that I'm very proud of you," Maya said as she surveyed the printout in her hand. "Your grades have really improved."

"Oh, it was all thanks to your help," Shinji replied, scratching the back of his head bashfully. "Really, if you hadn't agreed to tutor me, I'd still be barely passing everything, at best."

"Maybe, maybe not. In either case, you still had to work to learn the things I taught you. Anyway, thank you for showing me your report card," she handed him back the piece of paper. "It's very satisfying to see how far you've come."

"Oh, no problem," Shinji said, then he gave a nervous little chuckle. "I wanted to show you, since you really deserve all the credit. I'm just glad you don't think I'm bragging."

Shinji actually hadn't given that a thought until after he'd excitedly given Maya the printout of his report card to look at. When he'd gotten his grades at school that day, he'd been so pleased that he might not have thinking as carefully as usual about the possible consequences of his actions. He probably would've stopped to consider it at some point, but he'd already had to go to NERV headquarters—where Maya and all the rest of the techs were pulling lots of overtime to repair the battered Evangelions—so he hadn't really paused long enough to really think about the matter. The way he'd bumped into her in the halls almost immediately hadn't helped anything.

All in all, he was pretty relieved by her reaction, since it had really seemed like obnoxious boasting to him the moment he'd actually done it.

"Oh no, I didn't think you were bragging at all, just sharing the good news," Maya reassured him. "Well, I guess this means you won't be needing me much anymore."

"Huh?"

Maya gave him a small smile, looking amused. "You're in the top ten percent of your class now, Shinji," she said. "You don't exactly need a tutor anymore."

"Oh, but, uh, I don't want to backslide," he stammered. "I mean, what happens if there are new concepts that I don't get? I could fall behind again really quickly."

Almost as soon as he spoke the words, Shinji cringed. He wasn't sure if that sounded more desperate or corny, but he was sure it didn't sound good, let alone convincing.

However, Maya just gave him a small, rather amused smile. "I admire your dedication to your studies, Shinji," she said. "We can set up a tutoring session here and there, but I don't think we need to maintain our current schedule to keep you on track."

"But…" the Third Child stammered.

Time spent with the NERV technician was something that Shinji had come to treasure since she'd begun tutoring him. She was just so normal in a city where normalcy was all too rare a commodity; she was nice to him, and it was (indirectly) thanks to her that his relationship with his father had improved as much as it had. He considered her a good friend.

_I guess I shouldn't be surprised that she doesn't want much to do with me, anymore, now that the job's done,_ he thought sadly.

"If you want to continue meeting regularly like this, we're going to need some new subjects for me to tutor you on, and there are really only two that I consider myself any sort of expert on," Maya said thoughtfully. "What would you like to learn about next, Shinji? Computers or magic tricks?"

"Um, how about both?" the Third Child asked, surprised but very pleased.

"Both it is, then," Maya said with a smile. "Now, I really have to get back to work, unfortunately. Sempai will have my hide if she discovers me loitering about in the halls like this. We'll set up something once things calm down, all right?"

"All right," Shinji smiled.

* * *

"Man, oh man," Makoto groaned.

"It doesn't matter how many times it happens," Aoba agreed with a sigh. "It's never a pretty sight."

"Especially given all the sleepless nights and double shifts it represents ," Makoto agreed.

The two men were standing in one of the Evangelion cages, using a rare few minutes of break time to survey the battered forms of Units Zero and One.

Of course, the sight of an Evangelion with battle damage was hardly a unique sight; since the Third Angel had appeared and the war had commenced, it had become depressingly common, in fact.

However, the Fourteenth Angel had _really_ done a number on the prototype and the test type Evangelions. Fortunately, Unit Two had escaped the battle relatively unscathed and was already fully repaired, meaning that the city could still count on at least one Evangelion to defend it should another Angel show up. However, the other two EVAs were a long way from being at one hundred percent again, and Technical Division One had already been working on them around the clock for days.

Of course, looking at Unit One's heavily bandaged front, it wouldn't be difficult to believe that all NERV Central's legion of technicians and engineers had been mostly sitting on their asses for the past several days. Despite the amount of work that had gone into it, it still looked terrible.

"Any word on how long Dr. Akagi thinks it'll be before things start to calm down again?" Makoto asked.

Aoba released a derisive snort. "With the Evangelions in this state?" he asked. "Dream on. The good doctor's hedging her bets and not saying when we'll get to live like human beings again instead of robots. Assuming we ever do, of course."

Makoto sighed. "I guess it was dumb of me to think otherwise," he said. "I just hoped that with the progress we made on Unit Zero, there might be light at the end of the tunnel."

The long haired man turned his gaze to look at the blue Evangelion. It was still pretty rough, with lots of visible damage on the armor. They had managed to reconnect the arm, though, which meant that the EVA was technically considered fully operational, if far from combat ready.

Which was really quite good compared to Unit One; if Shinji tried to sync with it in its current state, it wouldn't be a pleasant experience, much less a productive one. At least Rei would be able to make Unit Zero move if she got inside it.

"Don't get optimistic around here," Aoba advised his colleague. "It will only lead to disappointment. We're gonna be working our fingers to the bone for weeks, and that's if we're lucky."

"By the way, where is Maya?" Makoto asked. "I heard she actually got a little time off recently. What dark forces did she make a deal with?"

"That was just a rumor," Aoba said, frowning. "Dr. Akagi just had her working on other stuff, so people started to assume that she somehow got leave time. I swear, first people think she's Zatanna, then somebody starts spreading the idea that she's off at a beach somewhere or something while we're all doing triple shifts. Girl does nothing, and she's at the center of every rumor around here lately."

"Okay, okay, calm down," Makoto said. "Heh, looks like Maya's been suffering at least as much as the rest of us, then."

"And speaking of suffering, I think it's time we got back to work," Aoba sighed.

* * *

"Maya, it looks like Shinji's core data for Unit One's been corrupted," Ritsuko Akagi said, pushing up her glasses enough so she could rub at her tired eyes. "I need you to perform an analysis and see if it can be repaired. If not, we're going to need to get Shinji in here and rewrite a new cerebral pattern profile for him."

"On it, Sempai," the brunette answered.

"You seem awfully cheery, given what we've all been through recently," Ritsuko remarked, looking vaguely annoyed as she took a sip of the awful coffee from the NERV cafeteria.

"Have I?" Maya asked, looking up from her laptop.

"Yes," Ritsuko replied matter-of-factly.

The brunette shrugged. "There hasn't really been anything that's gotten me feeling particularly over the moon lately," she said. "I guess things are just going smoothly for me, and I'm feeling optimistic about our chances in this war."

"Optimistic? After the last Angel half destroyed Unit One and did a number on Unit Zero?" Ritsuko asked, looking rather incredulous.

"Yes, it really did a lot of damage," Maya conceded. "It was a very powerful Angel, but we still won. I think the pilots have really started to work together better as a team, and that they're all in a pretty good place, mentally, right now."

Of course, the real reason she was in such a good mood had a lot more to do with her recent victory over Klarion the Witchboy than with any assessment of the war she might've made. Knowing that she was rid of SEELE's _Homo Magi_ errand boy was an _enormous_ weight off her shoulders. Between that and the way Shinji's relationship with his father seemed to be improving—continued proof that her decision to wipe the Commander's memories had been correct, drastic though it was—things were looking rosier for her than they had in quite some time. At this rate, it looked like she might even be able to return her ridiculous costume to retirement at the back of her closet.

"The mental state of the pilots can be a fickle thing," Ritsuko remarked grimly.

Maya looked up from her laptop long enough to frown at the bottle blonde. She didn't remember the scientist as having been quite so…pessimistic and negative in the past. She couldn't help but wonder if the war was just wearing on her mentor, or if Ritsuko had always been this way, and she just hadn't seen it until she'd become disillusioned with the woman.

"What do you mean?" Maya asked.

"The pilots are a group of kids forced into a very intense, very dangerous war," Ritsuko said. "Their mental states can go downhill abruptly, and very quickly, depending on what happens."

"I suppose so," the brunette allowed, "but we shouldn't be dreading what lies around the corner because things _can_ go badly."

Ritsuko just shook her head and smiled sadly, as though Maya was being very naïve.

The tech supposed she must seem so, from the older woman's perspective. After all, Ritsuko had no idea that she knew about some of the darkest secrets NERV had, so any optimism Maya displayed probably looked like proof that ignorance really was bliss to her.

Still, she couldn't help but feel annoyed, as well as strangely disappointed. After Maya had wiped Gendo Ikari's memories, many of the people around the Commander, as well as the man himself, had seized upon the blank slate the magician had forced upon him as an opportunity to start over. Gendo and Shinji had dramatically improved their relationship, while Fuyutski had leapt on the chance to make NERV's actual goals align with the organization's stated objectives.

Ritsuko…not so much.

Maya used to think that her mentor was simply brilliant. Now she knew that Ritsuko had a brilliant mind but that the blonde was also…what?

Cowardly? Weak? Foolish?

She wasn't sure, she realized. It could've been any or all of the above, but she still didn't have enough information to tell for sure. Maya supposed it just illustrated how little she really knew about the woman she called mentor, which, by extension, showed how much less she'd known _before_.

Shaking her head, the brunette turned her concentration back at the task at hand.

However, she didn't get very far before the door to the room opened, and a man in an impeccable black suit walked in.

Looking up again, it was all Maya could do to keep from cursing a blue streak.

The man was setting off that familiar tingle at the back of her neck, just like Klarion Bleak had.

He was _Homo Magi._

_Unbelievable! This is so not fair!_ The brunette thought as she struggled to keep her reaction from showing.

The conclusion of the Ninth Age of Magic, which had been brought about by Second Impact, had killed off so many of her fellow _Homo Magi_ that the damned Oblivion Bar had been nearly empty when she'd gone there. Yet after losing the Witchboy, SEELE had just sent in a replacement only days later.

"Excuse me," the man said in a low, raspy voice. "I need to find Commander Ikari. Would either of you know where he is?"

Ritsuko frowned. "I could direct you to his office," she offered, "but first, mind telling me who you are?"

"Of course, my apologizes for not introducing myself," the man said, looking vaguely amused, as though Ritsuko was some child who was being dense in a way that he found endearing. "My name is Felix Faust. I'm a Special Inspector to NERV. I just need to 'check in' with the Commander, as it were, before I get to work, but this place has me quite turned around."

The bottle blonde's frown deepened. "We already have a Special Inspector. Mr. Kaji."

"Inspector Kaji is an agent of the UN," Faust said. "I was sent by the Marduke Institute."

The scientist was outright scowling now, but she had no leg to stand on if she wanted to send Faust away. "All right," she relented. "I can—"

She was cut off in mid-sentence by the all too familiar blaring of klaxons. Red lights started flashing, bathing everything in a bloody, pulsing glow.

"What's going on?" Faust demanded, looking alarmed.

"The MAGI must have detected an Angel," Ritsuko said. "We need to get to the command center. Please come with us, Inspector. You'll be able to meet the Commander there, though I don't think he'll have time for pleasantries until the battle's over."

* * *

"Let's go, Asuka," the Second Child said softly to herself as Unit Two's entry plug came to life around her.

"Okay, Asuka," Misato said, her image popping up in a window on her HUD, "the Angel's in geosynchronous orbit above Tokyo-3, and it isn't showing any sign that it plans to come down."

Another window appeared on the wall of her entry plug, showing an image of the Angel, and the redhead had to admit that it was beautiful. It looked like a pair of wings made out of glowing pink crystal.

Which didn't mean that she wasn't going to blow it to smithereens, of course.

"We're going to be equipping you with the most powerful positron rifle we have," Misato continued. "However, it's unlikely that even that will be able penetrate the Angel's AT field at such a great distance, so your real goal with the antimatter weapon is to get it approach you."

"Piss off the Angel enough to get it to come down and play, got it. Now can we get this show on the road already?" Asuka asked impatiently.

"We're still moving Unit Two onto the correct launch catapult, as if you didn't know that. Now take this seriously," Misato said sternly. "Unit One is completely inoperable right now, and we just barely got Unit Zero's arm back on. It's not in combat rated armor, so we don't want to deploy Rei unless you absolutely need backup. You're pretty much on your own here, Asuka, so there's no room for error."

"I understand," the Second Child said in what she hoped was a solemn enough tone to get Misato to chill out.

Of _course_ she was going to take this seriously; this was the opportunity she'd been waiting for ever since she'd learned that she and her Unit Two would _finally_ be traveling to Tokyo-3. The chance to take on an Angel all by herself and show what she could really do in the machine she'd spent nearly her entire life training with. She had done well against the previous Angel, but that had very much been a group effort. This was going to be very different.

If only she'd known how true that was.

Asuka felt a muffled thud as her crimson Evangelion made it to the proper place.

"Unit Two launch!" she shouted before Misato could.

With a pulse of electromagnetic energy, Unit Two was sent rocketing upwards toward the surface. Asuka ignored the force of the acceleration as it pressed down on her, well used to it by now.

All of her being was focused on proving once and for all that she was the best.

Unit Two reached the surface, and Asuka wasted no time in grabbing the massive positron rifle that NERV had provided for her, assembling it in seconds with practiced ease. With that task done, she engaged her targeting computer, sitting back as the visor lowered itself in front of her eyes.

"Where are you?" she muttered softly as she tried fruitless to get a target lock. "Hey, Misato, any chance of getting a little assistance from the MAGI here? This equipment isn't made for shooting targets in orbit."

"I'll see what we can do," the Ops Director replied. "But until we work something out, I want you to keep trying to—"

The Angel chose that moment to strike. A beam of pink radiance, like a massive spotlight shone down upon the Earth by God Himself, came forth from the glowing Angel, easily piercing through the steely clouds that blanketed the skies of Toyko-3 to illuminate Unit Two.

And the Second Child _screamed._

* * *

"Asuka, what's wrong?!" Misato shouted as red lights flashed and klaxons blared all across the command center.

"It's attacking my mind!" Asuka shrieked, clutching at her head. "It's trying to violate my mind! Make it stop! Kaji, make it stop!"

A quick glance around the command center was enough to confirm that Kaji was nowhere in sight at the moment.

"Asuka! Withdraw!" Misato barked. "Get to a recovery point now!"

But the girl piloting the crimson titan didn't seem to hear her. Unit Two pulled the trigger on the massive rifle it held, sending a spear of light streaking up into the sky. Unfortunately, with no target lock, the results were predictable.

"She missed," Makoto reported, barely audible over the din. "She was off by over 500 kilometers."

"Reel Unit Two back in! Or eject Asuka's plug! Just get her out of the path of that attack!" Misato yelled.

"We can't!" Aoba said. "Unit Two's systems aren't responding to our commands. The system seems to be locked up."

"Naturally," Misato groaned, running a hand through her hair.

"No!" Asuka wailed. "I don't want to see that! Don't make me see that! Please don't!"

* * *

Seated at her familiar terminal in the command center, Maya squirmed nervously as she listened to Asuka's cries of agony coming through the speakers.

She dearly wished that she could help the EVA pilot, who despite her often sour attitude definitely didn't derserve the kind of torture that the Angel was obviously making her endure.

_If only I could use my magic, I might be able to do something,_ she thought with frustration.

Unfortunately, while she could easily get away with muttering out a few backwards words in all the commotion, Faust was standing in the background, silently observing the whole thing with a completely blank expression on his face.

The amulet she always kept on her person to ensure other _Homo Magi_ couldn't sense her wouldn't work if she cast a spell while in Faust's presence; even the tiniest magical feat would be akin to grabbing a bullhorn and proclaiming to the sorcerer that she, too, could wield mystic forces.

"It's inside my head!" Asuka shrieked. "No! Get out! That's mine!"

_I probably couldn't do all that much, anyway,_ she told herself. _I've never been able to directly affect an Angel with my magic. They all seem to be immune. And I have no idea how I could stop something in __**orbit**__ indirectly._

Even if she did have some plan in mind for stopping the Angel, the price would be too high. If Faust knew that she was really Zatanna—and it wouldn't take too much thinking for him to figure _that_ out, if he learned she could use magic—then Maya doubted she'd survive to the end of the day, regardless of how powerful she might be relative to him.

With Zatanna removed from the equation, Faust would be free to take a magic sledgehammer to all her work. There was no telling how much damage he could do; it was entirely possible that he could more than reverse everything Maya had worked so hard to achieve.

As much as it might not feel like it, preserving her secret was the right thing to do.

"Nien! Nein!" Asuka screamed, before releasing a torrent of exclamations in German that the brunette couldn't hope to follow.

_Not that I don't feel like a horrible person, anyway,_ she thought.

* * *

Positioned at the highest tier of the command center, Gendo Ikari watched with a passive expression on his face as everyone below him scrambled to figure out what was happening and how to stop it.

"The MAGI are still attempting to analyze the Angel's attack, but they haven't reached any conclusions yet, except about what the attack's _not_," Ritsuko announced. "Whatever it's doing may just be too far out of our experience for even the MAGI to figure out in real time."

"In other words, we're not getting any help there until it's too late to matter," Misato translated. "Lower the priority of the analysis. I want to know if there's any chance that our second biggest position rifle can pierce the Angel's AT field. We can still send out Unit Zero, after all." She added more softly.

"I'll have the MAGI crunch the numbers, but I can tell you right now that the odds of that working at this range are slim to none," Ritsuko said grimly.

"So long as it's not a zero or a negative number," Misato said curtly. "In fact, forget running the numbers. Just deploy Unit Zero with the rifle as soon as possible."

"Belay that." Gendo ordered, standing up.

Everyone on the command center paused to look up at him, probably having nearly forgotten that he was there until that moment.

"Rei, go to Terminal Dogma and get the Lance," the Commander ordered.

Just because his actions in his "previous life" obligated him to _look_ indifferent didn't mean he actually had to feel that way.

"Ikari, what are you doing?" Fuyutski hissed quietly to him, even as Rei boarded Unit Zero in preparation of carrying out her task. "If you use the Lance now, the Committee will be furious."

"What would you have me do?" Gendo retorted, also in hushed tones. "Leave that girl to suffer? Besides, in case you've forgotten, we _do_ need to kill the Angel at some point, or what the Committee thinks won't matter anymore."

"I hope they remember that," the older man muttered.

Gendo didn't bother to respond to that. Instead, he merely waited silently and watched as Unit Zero eventually emerged on the surface of the city, holding a spear that was longer than the war machine was tall. The blue colossus aimed with the assistance of the MAGI, then hurled the weapons toward the heavens.

For several tense moments, silence reigned on the command center.

Then the shaft of light shining down on Unit Two abruptly winked out.

"The Lance has made contact with the target," Maya announced. "The blue pattern has vanished. The Angel has been destroyed."

Usually that kind of news would've sent a cheer through the command center, but not this time. It wasn't hard to see why the staff remained quiet and subdued even in the face of victory.

One of the smaller screens in the command center was showing the video feed from inside Unit Two's entry plug. Even though the Angel's telepathic assault had ceased, Asuka remained curled up in a ball, looking terrified and miserable.

* * *

Hours later found Asuka Langley Soryu seated on the sidewalk, right next to where her Unit Two had fallen silent following the death of the Fifteenth Angel. The Second Child was surrounded by yellow hazard tape, thanks to a group of overzealous NERV personnel who had decided, without any consideration for her feelings, that she had likely suffered some level of mental contamination and that at least some symbol of quarantine was required.

Asuka didn't mind; she wanted to be left alone.

The redhead felt like something inside of her was broken. The Angel had reached inside her and violated a part of her that was supposed to be sacred and inaccessible to any attacker, even in the most nightmarish of scenarios. It had forced her to once again see things she had spent the bulk of her life trying to _un_see.

She didn't know what she would do next. All she knew was that things would never be okay again.

The Second Child was curled up into a ball, her face buried in her knees, so she didn't notice the way the world seemed to grind to a stop around her. Eventually, she became aware of how strangely quiet it was, when NERV personnel should've been noisily bustling about everywhere.

It was very strange, and if Asuka could've mustered the will to care, she probably would've looked up to see what was going on.

"Excuse me."

Hearing a voice come from the silence to address her, the redhead raised her head.

Her eyes widened when she saw Zatanna standing before her.

"What do you want?" the redhead asked petulantly.

"I want to help you," the magician answered.

A brief burst of derisive laughter escaped Asuka. It didn't sound like her to her own ears. "If you wanted to help so much, why didn't you do something while the Angel was attacking my mind?" she demanded, savoring the spark of anger that flared up inside of her, because it was so much better to feel ticked off instead of miserable and ruined.

"I wanted to, but I couldn't," Zatanna said softly. "I can help you now, though."

"How?" Asuka asked.

The magician crouched down so she was at the redhead's level. "I can take the memory of this day away from you," she said.

Asuka knew she should've laughed in Zatanna's face over _that_ claim, but the other woman seemed so deathly serious that she couldn't help but believe her.

Maybe she was just desperate.

"You can make me forget?" she asked.

Zatanna nodded. "It'll be like this never even happened," she promised. "But I'll only do it if I have your permission."

Asuka had to consider for only a moment. "Do it."

Nodding, the magician reached out and placed her fingertips on Asuka's temples. A second later, the redhead knew no more.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** And so we've gotten past the Fifteenth Angel, with Maya feeling bad enough for Asuka to perform a system restore on the girl's brain. Time will tell if that was a good call on her part or not.

Anyway, thanks as always to my readers and reviewers. Now for some fun.

* * *

Omakes

Alternate Amnesia

"You can make me forget?" she asked.

Zatanna nodded. "It'll be like this never even happened," she promised. "But I'll only do it if I have your permission."

Asuka had to consider for only a moment. "Do it."

"Judo chop!" Zatanna shouted, cracking the redhead a good one in the side of the head.

"Ow!" Asuka exclaimed, rubbing the spot where the magician had hit her. "What was that for?!"

"That was to make you forget," Zatanna said, as though it should've been obvious.

"It didn't work," the redhead scowled.

"That just means I have to hit you harder," the magician said cheerfully.

"Wait a minute!" Asuka exclaimed, scrambling to her feet and putting some distance between herself and Zatanna. "I thought you were gonna use magic."

"That won't work in this case."

"Why not?" Asuka demanded.

"For reasons that have nothing to do with you being nasty to me every time you and the other pilots had a sync test," Zatanna said. "Now come here."

"Hell no!" Asuka exclaimed, turning and running.

"Get back here!" Zatanna called, taking off after her. "I promise this'll only hurt a lot!"

Asuka, unsurprisingly, didn't slow down. "Worst…day…_ever_!"

* * *

Backstage

"Well, that's another chapter down," Maya proclaimed as she returned to the DC superwomen's 'Green Room', already in the process of loosening her bowtie. "Looks like you're up, sempai."

"_Finally!_" Ritsuko exclaimed, getting up from her chair as blue and black armor started to form over her body, quickly transforming her into the Blue Beetle. "I've been in peril for forever now!"

"She's really got a point," Misato put in even as Blue Beetle departed from the room, clearly eager to get to work. "We tend to get left at cliffhangers often, and then we're just left _dangling_ for a long time."

"Tell me about it," Asuka agreed, crossing her arms. "It takes a good _four months_ and change to get around the whole cycle. It's appalling!"

"Four months? Oh, no! What a nightmare!" a voice from the corner of the room called sarcastically.

A very awkward silence fell upon the room as everyone turned to look at a certain green-skinned superwoman. Manhunter Hikari was slumped in a chair, clutching a bottle that looked like it probably contained something minors really weren't supposed to consume. There was a layer of dust on her red costume. A spider had spun a web between the wall and her head.

"…sorry, Hikari," Asuka eventually ventured to speak into the suddenly tense atmosphere. "I wasn't thinking—"

"I _know_ you weren't thinking!" she snapped. "I can read minds!"

"Oh, yeah," Asuka laughed nervously. "Well…look at the bright side, at least your SOE1 incarnation's story is finished…"

"Don't get me started on her!" Hikari barked. "The little snot calls me up every week to tell me how wonderful it is to fly off into the sunset after saving the world! Well, I'll show her! I'll save the world someday, too! Just you watch."

With that, she took a very long pull from the bottle in her hand and then almost immediately passed out, somehow not breaking the spider web that was attached to her in the process.

"Wow," Misato said, once she was sure that the green girl was truly out. "She _really_ needs an update."

"Tell me about it," Asuka agreed.


End file.
